A Few Visitors
by The Sarcastic Raccoon
Summary: When an anomaly opens up in the A.R.C, everyone is surprised to find that the six kids that come through are the next generation of the team. But who is related to who, and will they find a way home? Jecker/Conby/Memily Rated M for language
1. Chapter 1

A FEW VISITORS

CHAPTER 1

**JESS**

05:30 AM

The clamourous buzzing of Jessica Parker's ringtone echoed out through her London flat, and upon awakening the woman's ears were immediately graced with the oh-so-soothing sounds of rain hammering against her window, sirens blazing outside, and the neighbour's dog barking into the darkness of the early morning.

Jess glanced grumpily at the bright pink alarm clock that sat on her bedside table, and seeing the time, envisioned ripping said alarm clock from the plug socket, marching next door, and strangling the loud miniature poodle that lived there with the cord.

She sighed. Annoying dog, annoying ringtone, annoying British weather.

These sort of rude awakenings were commonplace in her household, and made even more frustrating when Abby and Connor had kept her up the night before with their "antics".

Jess Parker was definitely not a morning person.

She tried to get out of bed, but found herself only to fail miserably when one of her feet got tangled in the bedsheets and she tripped face-first onto the floor, squashing her nose, knocking the air out of her lungs and receiving a decent amount of carpet burn on her forehead.

"Well, isn't this just fan-_fucking_-tastic?" Jess hissed to herself, on the verge of tears and clutching her nose in agony.

Frustrated, stressed out and utterly disorientated, she sat up, took a breath, and crawled on her hands and knees over to her bag, which had been lazily tossed onto the floor the previous evening after work. Fingers finding the still-ringing phone amidst the cluttered co tents of her bag, she whipped it out and peered at the screen.

Despite being half-asleep and slightly traumatised by the worst morning ever, her heart still managed to Flutter at the sight of one Captain Hilary Becker's phone number. Butterflies filled her stomach as she smiled sleepily to herself and answered his call.

"Hello?" she asked, trying to sound... Awake.

"Jess, it's me. We've got an anomaly alert, we need you at the A.R.C, ASAP." Becker said, sounding all soldier-like and efficient.

Her mind snapped into work mode; suppressing any dreamy Becker-thoughts that crept into her head, she stood and began pulling random items of clothing out of her wardrobe, finding and changing into a tartan dress and a pair of red patent Michael Kors heels.

"Where's the anomaly's location?" she asked Becker, holding the phone with her shoulder as she quickly fixed her hair and makeup in a compact mirror. Anomaly or no anomaly, when it came to Captain Hilary Handsome, she wasn't going to be seen looking like she'd just woken up, squashed her face and cried about it.

Satisfied with her appearance, Jess grabbed her jacket and bag and ran out of her bedroom, noting how quiet the flat was as she did so.

"Umm... Here." Becker replied.

"At the A.R.C?" Jess asked. "Of all the places in the UK, or the world for that matter, why do anomalies keep popping up at the A.R.C?" she whined.

"I don't know. But it's right here, I'm looking at it. I came into work an hour early to file a report on Tuesday's golf course anomaly incident, when the alarms went off. Scared the living daylight out of me." Becker went on. "Nothing's come through yet, though."

As he spoke, Jess realised that Abby and Connor were clearly not home, and so she switched off the lights, locked the door, and headed out of the building.

"How weird..." she mused. "Hey, do you happen to know where Abby and Connor are?"

"No. I called them, but I just got their answer machines." Becker said.

"Well, they're not here. In fact, now that I think about it, they didn't come home at all last night."

Becker paused, and Jess had a feeling he might know where they'd gone. He sighed.

"They're not here, that's for sure. Hold on, Lester just arrived. I've got to go, Jess."

And with that, Captain Becker hung up the phone.

Jess' heart dropped a little, for no real reason other than that she couldn't hear his voice any more and would have to wait an entire seven minutes before she'd finished the drive to work and could see him again.

She shoved her phone back into her bag and started her car's engine, turning the radio on loudly in an attempt to drown out that little voice inside that was screaming about how pathetic she was. She was turning 22 in less than a week, for god's sake— she was far too old now to have girly crushes on her co-workers.

Although, she had a chance with him, right? She wasn't that terrible, after all, and it's not like he had a girlfriend. He wouldn't be going into work to file a report at 5:30 am if he had a girlfriend.

She sighed exasperatedly, and decided to focus on other things— like the terrible morning she'd had, or how much she wanted to kill that miniature poodle.

Soon, though, Jess began to ask herself questions; like why there was an anomaly in the A.R.C, and where exactly Abby and Connor were.

**BECKER**

He'd lied.

Of course he hadn't come in to work at 5:30 am to file a report on Tuesday's golf course anomaly incident.

The report had been filed on _Tuesday_. Practically all of his reports were filed _on the day_ of the day of the incident. There was no way he would have left it two days, it was simply unprofessional. Who did she think he was— Connor?

No, no. Captain Becker had gone into the A.R.C that morning with other intentions. Awesome intentions, if he did say so himself.

But he needed some help. And so one Matt Anderson had joined him in his early morning adventures. And naturally, wherever Matt went, Emily went, so she ended up tagging along as well.

The three of them, Becker, Matt and Emily, had arrived at the A.R.C early on that rainy morning to hide Jess' birthday presents and the decorations for the surprise party they had planned.

But when Becker said "The party we've planned", he really meant "The party _I've_ planned". The soldier just wouldn't admit that he'd gone out of his way to plan something like a fabulous birthday party for Jess Parker- it would have simply been uncharacteristic of him.

But all the same, he Matt and Emily had just locked 47B (now filled with streamers and balloons and banners and presents), when the fucking alarms went off.

Becker and Emily had both nearly jumped out of their skins, however Matt looked almost unsurprised by the noise. It was as if the man couldn't be shocked by anything.

"Anomaly," Becker said.

"You think?" Matt said dryly, shooting the soldier a sardonic look. Becker glared at him, before taking off in a run towards the ADD. He needn't have bothered heading there, though, as he found himself staring straight at said detected anomaly.

Objects that looked like shards of floating glass surrounded by a blue light, chaotic and hypnotic all at once, shimmered and shone in the middle of the room. It looked oddly simple, when in reality it was so much more than just a strange light and pieces of debris, free of gravity's pull and at the centre of everybody's attention. So much more.

"Wh— it's here?" Emily questioned upon seeing it. Funny, how Matt didn't send any hurtful sarcastic comments Emily's way when she stated the obvious.

Becker suddenly realised that he had no EMD and wasn't in uniform. And there was an anomaly right there.

"I've got to get my EMD." he told Matt and Emily.

"Right, me too." Matt said, eyeing the anomaly.

"Okay. Emily, you call—" Becker had been just about to ask Emily to call the rest of the team, but then he realised that she didn't know how to use a phone. Victorian bitch.

Matt smirked.

"Becker, me and Emily will go get the EMDs— you make the phone calls."

And with that, the pair ran out of the room, leaving Becker alone with the anomaly and the phone.

Lester was the first person he called. However, Lester sounded grumpy, and so he'd ended the conversation very quickly.

He programmed Jess' computer to alert each of his men and the other staff members of the anomaly, all while trying to get a little further than Connor and Abby's answering machines, but with no luck.

Finally he'd called Jess.

And lied about why exactly he was at the A.R.C.

And apparently she didn't know where Connor and Abby were either.

Although, when she told him that they hadn't come home at all last night, Becker remembered Connor mentioning something about Abby's brother, gambling and concert tickets- but decided to keep that information to himself.

"What the bloody hell is going on here?" Lester's booming voice had ricocheted off of every wall in the A.R.C, giving Becker a fright for the second time that morning.

"Hold on, Lester just arrived, I've got to go Jess." he'd said quietly into the phone, reluctantly hanging up and knowing that he'd have to deal with the boss for the next seven minutes or so until she got there.

Becker stood with his hands behind his back, as he always did, and braced himself for the wrath of James Lester.

But, hey, it wasn't like the anomaly was _his_ fault.

Lester looked at the anomaly once, huffed, and then eyed Becker.

"Why aren't you in uniform, Captain?" he asked.

"I came in early to file a report, Sir. Wasn't expecting this." he replied.

Lester eyed him again.

"It's strange seeing you dressed in coloured clothing." Lester remarked with distaste.

Becker didn't know how to respond to that.

Matt and Emily soon rushed back into the room, Matt tossing Becker his EMD.

"You go get in uniform, we'll keep watch here. We don't want your men arriving to see you dressed... Casually." Matt said.

"Thanks," Becker said quickly, sprinting off to his locker.

By the time Becker had gotten changed, at least ten of his men had arrived, and Jess was just walking in as he reached the anomaly sight once more.

Jess' eyes widened at the sight of the anomaly, glittering wildly as it was reflected in her blue irises.

Becker caught himself admiring how put-together she looked at such an early hour (although her nose looked a bit red, for some reason), and turned his attention to Matt instead.

"Any luck getting through to Abby or Connor?" he asked.

"None." Matt replied, his line of vision moving lazily from the anomaly to Becker to the anomaly.

"Weird being the field coordinator when the 'field' is right next to your desk..." Jess chuckled as she approached them.

She took a seat at the ADD and Becker stood by, watching the screen over her shoulder.

"I'm tracking Abby and Connor's mobile phones..." she stated, fingers clicking at the keyboard furiously. "Apparently, they're at this address." She pointed to the screen.

"Jack's flat." she and Becker said simultaneously. Becker sighed- his suspicions had been correct.

He ordered a few of his men to go and "retrieve" the dynamic duo who had gone astray, before going to stand over by Matt again.

"What now?" Emily asked. Nearby, Lester huffed again and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Well, unless something comes through this bloody anomaly before we can lock it, we'll all just have to _wait._" he snapped.

It was as if something on the other side of the anomaly had in fact been listening to Lester, because at that very moment, something _did_ come through the anomaly.

It was a little girl.


	2. Chapter 2

A FEW VISITORS

CHAPTER 2

**CONNOR **

Connor Temple woke up feeling hot.

And not "Megan Fox" hot.

More like, "old-man's-shoe-dipped-in-mayonnaise-and-left-in-a-bioling-greenhouse-for-a-week" hot.

Basically, he felt like hot garbage.

Now, having been stuck in the cretaceous era for a year, and then getting sucked into work and adjusting to normal life upon his return home, Connor hadn't really had much time to be a party animal and really go wild.

But it seemed as though he and Abby were making up for it.

Luckily, he knew how to deal with a hangover.

Sort of.

Firstly, he acknowledged the fact that the last thing he remembered happening last night was Jack Maitland daring him to eat three pieces of used gum off of the street floor outside of the London Underworld on Camden High Street, a dare which he gladly accepted, washing down the hairy, trampled, germ-ridden pieces of gum with vodka (straight from the bottle).

Everything was a blank after that; although, the night before that point had been great.

Jack had called he and Abby over after winning a game of poker and ending up with three tickets to an Agnostic Front concert— anyone who knew Abby knew how much she loved that band.

And so, they'd gone on a bit of a pub crawl, gotten slightly pissed, he'd had ended up having sex with Abby in a very public place, they'd gone to the concert, gotten even more pissed, and he'd eaten the gum.

Somewhere along the way, Jack's mates they'd been drinking with got into a fight, and a few of them had been arrested. He and the Maitlands had managed to sneak away from the scene before the coppers could even notice them though, so the night didn't turn out as awful as it could have.

He still had a terrible fucking hangover though.

Connor slowly opened his eyes, praying to God he wasn't naked in the room where they kept the gimp in "Pulp Fiction". Nope, he was in a bed, and oddly comfortable for someone who felt as shit as he did right now.

The dizziness hadn't kicked in yet, but he knew as soon as he sat up it would hit him like a ton of bricks. So he just lay there for a moment, in some bed that wasn't his, wondering whose flat this was and if he'd done something stupid last night.

He knew one thing: he couldn't see Abby, and that was never a good sign.

Very, very slowly, Connor sat up, trying to let his equilibrium adjust as painlessly as possible to the first movement in a few hours. Success— he'd made it past the hardest part, as the throbbing in his skull was only mildly uncomfortable, and not as agonising as it could have been.

The room he was in was a total mess. Rubbish everywhere, empty beer bottles— it looked like something from an episode of "Hoarders". But it was vaguely familiar, as well.

And that was when he realised he was in Jack's room.

Connor sighed. He had a headache. His throat was dry. His eyes felt as though someone had tried to vacuum them out of their sockets. He had a sudden urge to eat greasy food, despite feeling sick as a dog. And he was in Jack Maitland's bed.

_Yay._

Just when he was beginning to wonder what time it was, and whether or not he was late for work, he heard a small voice croak his name.

"Connor?"

It was a woman's voice— familiar, the voice of his best friend, the voice of his fiancee— Abby sat up on the floor next to the bed.

"What are you doing on the floor?" was the first thing Connor asked her.

"I don't know, but I feel like I've just been punched in the face by Mike Tyson." she moaned, closing her eyes tightly and rubbing her forehead.

Connor snorted in amusement.

Abby shakily stood and rolled onto Jack's bed with Connor, before saying the cliché thing to say when you have a hangover.

"Urgh... I'm never drinking again."

"What happened last night? I can't remember a bloody thing after eating gum off the floor after the concert."

Abby screwed up her face in disgust.

"Yeah, I can't wait to kiss you now." she said sarcastically.

"Seriously though, what happened? We didn't get arrested or anything, did we? I've watched 'The Hangover', I know what happens when you get too drunk." he said.

"Nothing significant happened, I don't think... I don't remember, anyway... I'll ask Jack. Is he around?"

Abby stood, still in her combat trousers, layered tops and converse all stars, and left the room upon regaining her balance to look for her younger brother.

Connor, too, stood up, noticing as he did that although he was still wearing his T-shirt, waistcoat and shoes, his jeans we missing. He looked ridiculous; black socks pulled up the length of his shins, in his 'Ghostbusters' boxer shorts. And his jeans were nowhere in sight.

"Jack's gone," Abby called from the kitchen, as Connor searched his future brother-in-law's room for his trousers. "He left a note saying that he had to go explain to some people why he borrowed their... _digger?_"

And then Connor remembered something.

"Abs..." he started, calling Abby over to Jack's room. Abby apparently remembered too, and rushed into the room. They shared a look of "oh-shit", before both darting over to the window to look outside.

There, parked horrifically outside of the block of flats, was a giant, yellow JCB digger.

He knew they hadn't walked home.

While Abby stood staring at the machine outside for half an hour, trying to remember what had possessed them to steal a fucking digger, Connor found his jeans— on top of Jack's medicine cabinet, for some reason.

He put them on and found multiple items in the pockets: namely, half a Mars Bar, his mobile phone, another mobile phone that didn't belong to him, the phone number of a woman named Natasha scribbled onto a ripped beer mat, a post-it note saying "_Matt- FLOWERS_", and an unopened tube of toothpaste.

"Abby, I have some toothpaste here, I don't know why... And I got the number of a 'Natasha' last night, for some reason." he announced, finding her looking for her own phone amidst Jack's belongings.

"Hmmm..." she mumbled, clearly too immersed in looking for her mobile to take notice of him.

Connor shrugged and began to open the toothpaste bottle, when there was a knock on the door. He and Abby looked at each other.

"Should I answer it?" he asked.

"I guess so." Abby said, shrugging.

Connor went over to the flat door and opened it, only to find two soldiers looking back at him. They looked slightly familiar, and that was when he realised they were Becker's men.

"Hi." he said, smiling widely at them. "We were just on our way to work..." he began, but one of the soldiers interrupted him.

"Mr. Temple, we are here to retrieve you and Ms. Maitland on the orders of Captain Becker and Mr. James Lester. There is an urgent anomaly alert, and we need your assistance."

Connor nodded, and before he could shout her, Abby darted past him.

"Got my phone, let's go!" she called, running down the hall. Connor closed Jack's door, smiled once more at the intimidating men stood before him, and followed his partner in crime out of the building.

"_Where_, may I ask, have you been?" Lester shouted as he and Abby entered the A.R.C.

Connor cringed at the noise, covering his ears.

"Ouch, mate, hangover..." he mumbled.

"Lester, stop shouting, you're scaring her." Matt said.

(Connor pondered for a moment as to what the note in his pocket saying "_Matt- FLOWERS_" meant. He didn't like the sound of it.)

"Scaring who?" Abby asked.

It took a moment for Connor's hungover brain to register the fact that there was a massive anomaly in the middle of the room, and another moment for him to spot the little girl stood in front of it.

He pointed at the anomaly, and then at the girl.

"Funny, how your soldiers didn't mention that the anomaly was _here_." he said to Becker, who just ignored him.

"Did... Did she come through?" Abby asked. Everyone nodded.

"Why didn't you lock the anomaly?" Connor whispered to Becker.

"Because _somebody_ stole the device that just so happens to lock it. _Somebody_ with access to the building." Becker hissed back.

Connor gulped, as another memory resurfaced in his brain. Apparently, Jack liked the Anomaly Locking Mechanism. And so did his friends.

"Wonder who that was..." Connor muttered, stepping away from Becker and acting as innocent as possible.

The little girl stood, surrounded by them all, quietly taking in her new surroundings.

She must have been no more than twelve years old, wearing an oversized pink jumper and a pair of brown Ugg boots. She wasn't from the past, that was certain.

Something about her seemed familiar, Connor thought. Brown ringlets fell gently around her little face, and the wide, hopeful eyes staring out at them all seemed to be full of intelligence. This was a smart kid.

"What's your name?" he asked her.

A mischievous grin spread across her face, and Connor realised that this girl knew something they didn't.

"I can't tell you." she replied quietly. "But I know yours."

Everyone exchanged confused glances.

"...You what?" Connor asked.

"You're Connor Temple." she giggled.

"Okay, how did you know that?" Connor said, sounding frightened. The little girl giggled.

"What's my name?" Abby asked. Everyone looked from her to the girl.

"I'll get in trouble with mum and dad if I tell you." she spoke. She had a soft English accent, with a hint of something else in there, maybe Irish, or Scottish.

"Err, I think the damage is done." Connor said.

"Wait, maybe we shouldn't ask her these questions. What if we're causing a butterfly effect here? Shouldn't we just send her back through?" Becker pointed out.

"We don't know what the other side's like, though." Matt added.

"Yes, _Captain Becker_, you don't know what the other side's like." she giggled. Connor began to laugh with her at Becker's muddled facial expression.

"She doesn't even seem bothered about the anomaly..." Lester mumbled.

"That's because I'm _not_ bothered about the anomaly... _Lester_." she replied, cheekily. Lester glared at her.

"Do you know us?" Connor asked.

The little girl glanced at each person individually, the grin never leaving her face.

"Connor Temple... James Lester... Abby Maitland... Jessica Parker... Matt Anderson... Emily Merchant... and Becker."

Every adult in the room stared at the girl, dumbfounded.

"What year are you from?" Matt asked.

She looked at him, and was suddenly serious.

"I can't tell you. I'll get in tr—"

Her sentence was interrupted when the anomaly quivered, and somebody else stepped through.

"_MOLLY!_ What are you doing?"

It was another girl, this time slightly older. She looked about seventeen, with familiar blue eyes, and lengthy brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. It was how she was dressed that intrigued everyone.

She wore a pair of black combat pants, black combat boots, and a black T-shirt with the A.R.C logo on the front.

"Sorry Haley..." Molly wasn't so cocky all of a sudden.

"That's the A.R.C logo." Connor pointed out. The girl named Haley snapped her head up to look at him.

She hadn't taken any notice of the other people in the room until this point, and when she saw the faces around her, realisation dawned.

"Oh my god..." she mumbled.

"See." Molly said, confidence returning.

"What year is this?" Haley demanded, clutching Molly's arm.

"2012..." Jess said quietly from her seat. Haley did a double-take when she spotted the Jess, who looked utterly freaked out.

"Jessica Parker?" she asked. Jess nodded meekly.

"And look, there's Connor, and Abby, and Lester, and Becker, and—" Molly began to point out, until Haley stopped her.

"Molly! You're not allowed to do that! Have you learned nothing?" Haley snapped.

"Err, I think the_ damage _has been_ done_." Connor said once again.

"We have to go home." she whispered to Molly, who looked over at Emily as if seeking her help.

Emily felt sympathetic for the girl, who was clearly in a lot of trouble, but couldn't really do anything.

"I think that might be best." Lester stated.

And the girls might have ended up going home: if only the anomaly hadn't quivered once again and a few more people had stumbled through.

**a/n: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! It's appreciated! :D**


	3. Chapter 3

A FEW VISITORS

CHAPTER 3

**CONNOR **

He could not regret getting drunk and stealing the Anomaly Locking Mechanism any more than he did at the moment that four more people stumbled through the anomaly.

A girl and three boys appeared in the room as the shards of glass quivered and parted in a chaotic pattern.

The girl and the first boy strolled through as though they had been time-travelling their entire lives, casually stepping into this new world without seeming to care.

The two boys behind them, however, were pushing and shoving each other as they came through, laughing like mischievous schoolboys, but stopped abruptly when they noticed the adults surrounding them.

Connor couldn't help but think that the girl that had just arrived looked like the product of a relationship between Abby Maitland and Adam Levine.

The ends of her long, blonde locks were dyed purple, and she had multiple piercings on her ears and nose and one eyebrow. Her jeans were ripped, her makeup was dark and she was short.

She seemed relaxed but intimidating at the same time, unlike the boy that had closely followed her through the anomaly. He was tall, and his thin, lanky frame only emphasised that further.

And Connor nearly had a heart attack when he saw this boy in particular.

He was wearing skinny jeans and converse all-stars, a waistcoat over a Star Wars t-shirt, and his black hair was cut with a long-ish back and a tiny faux-hawk flip at the front. He had big, puppy-dog eyes, and a grin that belonged to someone he knew very well.

It was as if he was staring at himself, only sixteen years younger.

Even the boy's movements were like his own. And it was freaking him out.

Because Connor had fixated his attention on the kid who he looked so similar to, he didn't take notice of the other boys.

One looked to be considerably younger than the other, and was wearing a t-shirt that had the words "**I'm Smart**" printed onto the front. He had a messy head of thick, brown hair, hazel eyes, and wore a pair of bright, neon green and red shoes that completely clashed with the rest of his outfit.

The other boy was obviously the oldest of them all; he looked about nineteen, maybe twenty. Messy auburn hair, a crooked nose, a crooked smile, and a pair of icy blue eyes adorned his face.

The way his thought process was mirrored through his facial features was all too familiar to the team, too, and when he grinned cheekily at them, he reminded Abby, Becker, Lester (and if Connor had been paying attention, he too) of a certain former teammate.

"Haley, what's going on?" the oldest boy asked Haley. The girl dressed in soldier-like uniform shot him a cold glance.

"Well, lets see... Molly was born... And then 12 years later, she dragged us through an anomaly!" she snapped, causing Molly to look at the floor in shame. "Oh god, this was so irresponsible of you! Now we're here, in god knows what year... Thank goodness we didn't end up in the bloody cretaceous, because I don't even have my EMD with me!" Haley complained.

"Calm down, Haley..." the older boy said. Connor now noticed that he had a thick cockney accent.

"No, I will not— Jake? Why are you here?" Haley said loudly, her train of thought changing tracks when she noticed the younger boy with the "**I'm Smart**" t-shirt.

"I followed Derek..." he snapped back at her, pointing to the older boy.

"Derek is much older than you! You can't just follow him wherever you please!" she yelled.

"Hey, you can't talk to me like that, you're not mum!" Jake yelled back.

"Mum and Dad from our time aren't here, so, as the oldest sibling, I'm in charge of you!" Haley finished.

Jake's face turned red, and he stared angrily at his shoes with crossed arms.

"Come on, guys, stop arguing, now..." the Connor-Temple-lookalike said softly.

"... There's no need for it." the blonde punk girl added.

"Err, excuse me, but who the hell are you?" Lester asked the kids.

The room fell silent, and the four newcomers looked around at the people Molly and Haley had already been semi-introduced to.

"...Hold on..." Jake said, as he realised something that the others already had.

The Connor-boy spotted actual Connor and his eyes grew wide. Connor's own eyes had remained wider than Kim Kardashian's arse throughout this entire time, but when he and the boy made eye-contact, there was a strange jolt of energy in the air between them.

Then, the boy burst out laughing. And Connor began to laugh nervously.

Becker, Jess, Matt, Emily, Derek, Lester, Abby, Haley and the blonde punk girl just stared at them. The blonde girl and Abby sighed simultaneously.

And nobody noticed Jake ignoring them all and staring at Becker, slack-jawed in awe.

"Will you please stop laughing, Sid? It's not really the time." the blonde girl said to the tall boy.

Sid?

"Oh, chill out, Nancy." Sid said back.

Nancy?

Sid and Nancy?

"... Your names are Sid and Nancy?" Connor asked the pair.

"Umm, yeah." Nancy replied.

Connor looked at Abby, who he was certain was thinking the same thing as him.

"Are you brother and sister?" Abby asked.

Jake answered for them.

"They're twins." he said.

"Jake! Shut up! They're not supposed to know that!" Haley snapped.

"God, Haley! You're such a bitch! Leave me alone!" Jake snapped back at her.

"You are such a little brat..." she retorted, and the two began to bicker loudly, approaching one another and shouting into each other's faces.

Jess stood up, and, sensing that she should try and keep the peace, attempted to intervene.

"Haley started it! You saw, it wasn't me!" Jake yelled at her.

That was when Becker stepped in.

"Hey, don't yell at Jess like that, you don't even know her." the Captain warned.

Jake stared at him.

"You don't know anything!" he shouted, shocking Becker.

"Oi, don't talk to action man that way, mate." Connor said, defending his friend.

"Jake has a point, though..." Derek said.

"I think you've done enough, Derek." Haley hissed. "You lead him here."

"I was just following Sid and Nancy!" Derek said.

"Hey, don't blame this on me!" Sid said. "...Blame Nancy."

"What?" Nancy yelled.

"How's it her fault?" Abby asked.

"It just is!" Sid whined.

"Good explanation..." Emily giggled, listening in on the conversation.

"I was following Haley." said Nancy.

"And I was following Molly! Because she's not disciplined, and steps through bloody anomalies all the frigging time!" Haley ranted.

"Hey, she's just a little girl..." Matt pointed out.

"Easy for you to say, you're not years away from home!" Haley retorted.

"Will you all just SHUT UP!" Lester practically screamed.

It was chaos. Apparent strangers, bickering and yelling at each other in the middle of the A.R.C. The other staff members and soldiers just stood watching, not really knowing what to do.

"Shut up_! Shut up!_ _SHUT UP!_" Lester screamed, so loudly that everyone fell silent.

Derek silently moved Haley away from Jake, because he was sure she was about to punch him.

"Good. Now, will someone please explain to me just what is going on here, and who you all are?" Lester demanded.

Standing next to Derek, Haley calmed down... And realised that Molly had been absent throughout the duration of the giant quarrel.

"Where's Molly?" she asked.

Everyone looked around.

"She's gone." Abby said.

"Not again..." Sid whined.

There was a collective sigh from the younger people in the room.

"Well, lets find her!" Lester ordered. "I don't want a little girl running around in my building, which happens to be filled with very expensive equipment and technology!"

Everyone split up, calling out Molly's name and praying she hadn't gotten into even more trouble.

**BECKER**

The first place Captain Becker went to check was the weapons storage room.

Because the last thing he wanted to deal with was a mischievous tween girl with her hands on an Electro Muscular Disruption weapon.

He tread quietly along the halls, his EMD raised (again, out of sheer habit), listening out for any signs of the twelve year old who knew his name.

He wondered whether or not she knew his first name. She hadn't mentioned it, but he still made a mental note to be extra nice to her, just in case she decided to 'accidentally' let it slip.

He didn't want anyone but Jess knowing his secret, that was for sure.

The were no signs of her in the halls, and his mind began to wander. He pondered about where these kids were from, and why they were so oddly comfortable around everyone he worked with.

They must be from the future, he decided. And from the Anomaly Research Centre, too- the one named Haley had the A.R.C logo on her shirt, so that was confirmed.

Was he related to one of them?

What if one of them was his... Child?

What if he had a family?

He stopped in his tracks and elaborated silently on this thought.

If one of them was his kid, then they would have to have a mother, too.

He dared himself to guess who he'd end up with.

Maybe he'd end up marrying a celebrity, or a supermodel or something. Megan Fox, perhaps? Mila Kunis? Eva Mendes? Scarlett Johanson? Rihanna?

Hey, it could happen. Maybe he'd steal Stacy Kiebler away from George Clooney...

Okay, things were getting off track now.

Realistically... Who might he end up starting a family with?

The obvious person that came to mind was Jess. Hmm. Jessica Becker. Mrs. Jessica Becker.

It sounded nice.

But what if Jess... Died? What if something happened?

What if she broke up with him, or they got a divorce?

What if he was a single father in the future?

No, he couldn't think that way. He wouldn't.

He decided then and there, in the empty hallway, that he would figure out which kid was (if any) his son or daughter, and interrogate them until he found out who their mother was.

He had to know.

But, of course, once Molly was found, they would all be sent home. It was the correct, professional thing to do.

But he was still human, after all... It was only normal for him to be curious.

He stopped in his tracks suddenly when he heard a shoe squeak nearby.

He listened carefully. The noise had come from around the corner, so he crept silently up against the wall, knowing for a fact that someone was around the other side.

He waited a moment, and then jumped out into the corridor, expecting to catch the person off-guard.

Instead, he found himself standing face-to face with Haley.

Apparently, she had had the same thought process as him, and had been trying to catch him off-guard as well.

They sighed and rolled their eyes at exactly the same time as one another.

"Well, you're not Molly." he said.

"I could say the same thing." said Haley.

"Well... She's not around here. I suggest we go down the east corridor." he said.

"Agreed."

They walked down the hall in silence, each of their minds now on the task at hand.

"Is Jake your brother?" Becker asked her after a while.

Haley snorted, as if the question was ridiculous.

"Yeah. He is. Unfortunately." she replied.

"You're not very nice to each other."

"Well, I just get frustrated with him. I'm the soldier out of us all. It's my job to protect them, but he doesn't make it an easy job for me. Sometimes I feel like a babysitter." she explained.

Becker chuckled.

"I certainly know exactly how that feels." he said.

They smiled at each other, Haley with a knowing glint in her eye, and continued patrolling the halls.

"Its harder for me than you, though. You're a well respected soldier, you have a distinguished military record, and you worked in Special Ops before Lester recruited you." she said. "Me— I'm still in training at Sandhurst."

Becker stopped in his tracks once more and raised his eyebrows, totally baffled.

"How do you know these things?" he asked.

Haley realised she had just let her knowledge of him slip, and bit her lip nervously.

"To quote the infamous Molly... I can't tell you."

"Seriously, tell me." he demanded.

"Piss off." she laughed.

"Excuse me?"

"I said 'piss off'."

Becker was shocked by her forwardness.

"I wouldn't talk to me like that, if I were you. I have a hundred men under my command— I can have you put in solitary confinement, or worse, with just a click of my fingers."

Haley raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh, please. I have _two hundred_ men under my command."

**JESS**

Jess had, somehow, ended up looking for Molly... With Jake.

They both called out the little girl's name, searching in office rooms, under desks and in closets and such.

It was when she was crawling around on the floor during one of these searches that she noticed Jake's shoes.

"Nice shoes..." she laughed.

"Hey, I like them." he said defensively.

Jess had gotten to her feet, and stood facing him. He was taller than her, and already about 5'7" at such a young age; once he'd finished growing he would surely be over 6 foot tall.

"I wasn't being sarcastic." she assured him. "I really like them."

Jake smiled lopsidedly at her.

"Thanks... I like shoes, see. My friends make fun of my shoes. They say they're weird, too bright and silly and I'm too choosy about them." he explained.

"You know, I'm exactly the same. Because I wear really high heels in all different colours, people think it's odd. But it's not, I just express my self through my shoes." she said.

"Exactly!" Jake agreed.

She laughed at the boy. He was probably fourteen, maybe fifteen. His eyes we gorgeous... Soft and hazel, just liken those of a certain Captain she knew.

"You're quite tall, aren't you? How old are you?" she asked him.

"I'm fifteen. My sister's seventeen. But she's pissed off because I'm taller than her. She has that Napoleon Syndrome, you know?" Jake laughed. "She's only 5'4"— she gets that from... Mum."

"You paused."

"What?"

"You paused before you said 'mum'. Why?"

"No reason."

"Okay, then."

As they looked around various rooms and storage closets, calling out Molly's name, Jess couldn't help but stare over at Jake's familiar eyes.

"Jake... What's your surname?" Jess asked him, as nonchalantly as possible.

"It's—" He was about to tell her, but stopped when he realised he wasn't allowed.

He smirked.

"Nice try."

Jess decided to try and get more information about these visitors before they left, which they would inevitably have to in a short while, after Molly was found.

"What year are you from?" she asked.

"Nope. Not telling." he replied quickly.

"You work at the A.R.C, right?"

"How did you know that?" he asked.

"Haley's shirt has the logo on it." Now it was Jess' turn to smirk.

"Damn... Okay, well, since you figured that out yourself, I can answer your question with a 'yes'." he replied quietly.

"What's your position?" Jess questioned him.

Jake looked over his shoulder cautiously, as if to make sure Haley wasn't going to hear him and scold him, before answering Jess.

"I go out on missions sometimes... But I'm training to be field coordinator." he said proudly.

Jess' chest filled with pride.

"That's my job!" she squeaked excitedly.

"I know." he chuckled. "Haley's doing military training at Sandhurst at the moment, but I'm good with computers and the A.D.D..." he continued. He pointed to his t-shirt. "I graduated school last year with 13 GCSEs. I'm smart."

He and Jess both grinned.

Jess dared to ask him one last question. Then she would drop it, she decided.

"...Who are your parents?" she asked.

Jake froze, and avoided making eye-contact with her.

"Can't tell you. Sorry." he mumbled.

And so Jess began to plead with him.

"Please! Please, please_, please_, tell me! I won't tell anyone, and I'm dying to know, because I think I've figured it out, but I need to know!" she begged. "Please! I know you're one of _our_ kids... And you'll be going home once we've found Molly, and I'll meet you in the future anyway! Pretty please with cherries on top?"

Jake sighed.

He opened his mouth to tell her, but was then interrupted by Matt's voice shouting everyone into the other room.

Jake smirked at her, and jogged out of the room. Jess ground her teeth together in frustration, and moved (as fast as humanly possible in five inch heels) out of the room after Jake.

She supposed that Matt had found Molly and she would never find out the answer.

She would have to wait a few years and see.

How wrong Jessica Parker was.


	4. Chapter 4

A FEW VISITORS

CHAPTER 4

**ABBY**

Abby had immediately dragged Connor to the menagerie, to make sure that Molly wasn't about to cause a major crisis by letting a few prehistoric creatures take a stroll around London.

Connor was acting jumpy and weird, but she couldn't blame him.

Two twin kids, from the future undoubtedly, had walked through an anomaly into their lives that morning. But not just any kids. _Their kids._

She was absolutely sure of it.

The boy, for a start, was the spitting image of Connor. She never assumed the Temple genes would be that strong.

And the girl? It was seventeen-year-old her, from 1998.

Their names were Sid and Nancy, too— that wasn't merely a coincidence.

So she could understand why Connor seemed... On edge.

And on top of all that, she had a killer hangover.

Abby herself had been freaked out, so to speak. But she had got her head around it, and come to terms with the situation. In fact she was happy, excited even, by the thought that one day she and Connor would start a family.

Connor: not so much.

"Well, Molly's not here..." Abby called over to him as she double checked that the menagerie doors were locked properly. Connor didn't respond. "Connor?"

She found him leaning against a wall and staring off into space. She waved a hand in front of his face, making him jump.

"Yeah? Wh-what? Did you find Molly?" he asked her suddenly, his brain catching up to her upon reawakening. She laughed.

"No, Molly isn't here. Are you okay?"

"Couldn't be better." he said, wide-eyed and clearly _not _okay.

Abby felt sorry for him. He just saw someone who everybody could automatically tell was his son. It was like he became the father of two seventeen year olds in a matter of seconds.

"Yeah, let's find that little girl so that these weirdoes can go home." he chuckled nervously, standing up straight and rubbing his eyes.

The pair walked purposefully down the hall away from the menagerie, but were stopped short when Sid and Nancy walked around the corner and straight into them.

"Oh... Hi." Sid said. Connor gulped and waved feebly at him.

"Any luck with Molly?" Abby asked them, trying to remain in control of the current situation.

"Err, no. We were going to check the menagerie, but I see you've already done that." Sid said.

"Yeah, she's not here." said Abby.

Sid looked disappointed.

"...Did you want to see the menagerie, though?" Abby asked the boy, before she could stop herself. Nonetheless, Sid's face brightened as she said the words.

"Hell, yes! I wanted to do that the moment I realised where we were!" he cheered excitedly.

Abby found herself smiling, but soon switched back into her sensible self.

"Connor, shall we show our friends here the menagerie? They clearly work at the A.R.C, too..."

Connor's mouth opened and closed like he was a goldfish, trying to think of words to say, but with none forming. He looked from person to person, begging his brain to start a sentence.

"Err... Yeah." was what he finally croaked.

Sid whooped loudly, and sprinted off down the hall. Nancy smiled meekly at Abby and shrugged, before following her down the hall.

Connor waited for a second before his brain could function again, and then trailed after Sid, Abby and Nancy like a lost dog.

"So... Nancy, right?" Abby asked the blonde, who happened to be the exact same height as her.

"Yeah. And you're Abby... Maitland?" she asked in return.

Abby nodded.

"I won't ask you any questions. I know it's prohibited for us to do so on both ends." Abby said.

Nancy nodded in agreement.

"Of course. Prohibited."

They found Sid, having known the access codes to the room already, pressed up against the glass window that allowed people to view the animals safely, staring in awe at the creatures below.

"Wow! Nancy, come look at this!" he squealed. He had the same Yorkshire accent as Connor. Nancy strolled casually over to her twin, grinning when she saw the animals.

"I take care of the animals in the menagerie in our time." Sid said, ignoring the dirty look Nancy shot him when he told Abby this fact. "And the place really hasn't changed all that much, to be honest..."

"Really?" she asked.

"Oh yeah... I see you haven't got the parasaurolophus in yet?"

"Parasaurolophus? Seriously?" Connor asked. Abby felt strangely relieved to hear him speaking.

"Yep. And we have—"

"—Sid! _Prohibited_, remember?" Nancy hissed, stopping him from continuing.

"Right. Sorry." he mumbled, turning his attention back to the creatures.

"W-What about you?" Connor asked shyly from his spot. Abby and Nancy looked at him.

"Me?" Nancy asked.

"Yeah, you. He runs the menagerie... What do you do?" asked Connor.

She looked at Abby as if asking for permission to answer, before deciding _'bugger it'_, and telling him.

"I— well, we both— go out on field missions, of course. But me and Jake designed the updated version of the A.D.D. And I programme and run and modify all of the security systems and technology in general." she explained.

Connor smiled slightly, looking a tad relieved. He seemed satisfied with her answer.

"Okay, guys. We better carry on looking for Molly, eh?" Abby told everyone. They all nodded, and promptly left the menagerie.

"Do you like Star Wars?" Connor asked Sid as they were walking down the hallway, pointing to his shirt.

"Like it? I was brought up on it. It's like a religion to me. My middle name is Anakin." he laughed. Connor grinned.

"Please tell me your middle name isn't Leia, or something?" Abby joked, looking over at Nancy. She was just kidding, but then Nancy smiled weakly and shrugged.

"What- it is?" Abby snapped. Connor's smile faded when he saw how disturbed Abby looked.

"Yeah, but it's okay. My other middle name is Jackie, after my uncle." she assured her.

"...You're uncle is named Jack, then?" Abby asked.

There was a silence between them all.

"Busted..." Sid whispered. Nancy smacked him on the arm.

Connor looked much happier by this point, which calmed Abby's nerves a little.

They were all searching the A.R.C thoroughly for the twelve year old who had caused them to meet in the first place, when Matt's voice called them into the other room.

"Maybe he found Molly." Abby said.

"That was quick... It usually takes us a couple of hours to find her." said Nancy.

"It's because we played so much 'hide and seek' with her when she was little." Sid mumbled.

They left the room and soon found Matt and Emily. They had, indeed, recaptured Molly. But now, something else was wrong. Very wrong.

**EMILY **

"Why did you run off like that?" Emily softly asked the little girl in the oversized pink jumper.

Molly shrugged.

The pair were currently sat on the sofa in the recreation room; Matt had finally found Molly looking through the refrigerator for ice cream, or jelly, or something along those lines.

Matt had left Emily alone to supervise the cheeky little girl, while he called the rest of the team back into the operations room over the intercom.

"According to your friends, you do that a lot." Emily said. Molly smiled evilly.

"I just like to... Look around a bit."

"So you just walk through anomalies, all the time? Without wondering what's on the other side?" Emily asked her.

"Of course I wonder what's on the other side- that's _why_ I go through. And anomalies don't really scare me. We've been stuck in different times once or twice, too, but we always find our way home in the end." she told Emily, thinking nothing of what she'd just explained.

"Who's _'we'_?" Emily questioned.

"Me… Mum and Dad… We're all from different times." Molly said, smiling.

Emily nodded.

She was starting to think that maybe this little girl knew her very well.

"Emily!" Matt called, rushing back into the room. Emily stood up to attention. "You better come and look at this."

Emily followed Matt out of the rec room; he seemed panicked- well, as panicked as Matt Anderson could get.

He lead her to the operations room, with Molly following them both closely.

Emily stopped and stared around the room before her.

The anomaly was gone.

"Becker! Jess! Abby! Connor!" she heard Matt shout down various different corridors.

Soon, Becker arrived with Haley in tow, Jess and Jake rushed into the room, and Abby, Connor, Sid and Nancy arrived as well. Derek and Lester and a few soldiers followed shortly.

"Wh-Where is it?" Lester asked them all, as if they'd hidden the anomaly.

"I came in here to call you all over the intercoms and announce that we'd found Molly... But it was already gone." Matt explained.

"It's closed up." Connor mumbled.

Emily glanced down at Molly, who was chewing her lip nervously. Her face was a picture of guilt if ever she'd seen one.

"So... What? These lot are just _stuck_ here?" Lester questioned them furiously.

The kids didn't look so confident all of a sudden.

"Shit, we are." Sid said.

Nancy sought comfort from her twin brother, and was clutching his arm with a tight grip, but all he could do was state this fact to her.

Jake and Haley looked across at each other, and had some sort of silent, worried, telepathic conversation.

Molly shuffled closer to Emily and slipped her miniature hand into Emily's own. She was looking at the floor shamefully, so no one could see her face.

And Derek, not too far away from Lester, shoved his hands in his pockets.

He wasn't even bothered that they were 'stuck'. It was merely a minor inconvenience to him; he'd been in far worse situations at a much younger age, when he was far less capable and streetwise. They'd be fine, he knew.

But he felt sorry for his teammates. They were far away from home, and a couple of them, namely Jake, Sid and Nancy, had never been lost in time before.

He knew how panicked they felt, and that sickening feeling that was rising in their stomachs at that very moment. Trying not to ask themselves the dreadful question of 'will I ever get home?'

"It could be worse." he said, trying to lighten the mood, as he always did.

"How? _How_ could it be worse?" Lester snapped back at him. "You are all stuck here, and now I have to deal with you. This is the _last_ thing I needed right now."

Derek glared at James Lester.

"It could be worse, in that we would be stuck in the Cretaceous. Or the Triassic. Or the bloody Jurassic, with jungles, and deserts, and mountain ranges, and big fucking dinosaurs." he said back, cockney accent stronger than ever. "But we're not. We're stuck here. With good people. In a safe environment. And for that, I'm thankful for."

Haley nodded in agreement.

Lester continued his staring competition with Derek for just another moment, before swallowing his pride. He straightened his tie, and looked around at them all.

"Captain Becker, would you be so kind so as to escort our guests to the interrogation room?" Lester instructed. Becker nodded.

He rounded up the kids, who traipsed over to him glumly, and lead them out of the room.

Silence.

"What do we do?" Abby asked.

"What _can_ we do? We have to keep them here until, hopefully, the anomaly reopens." Matt said.

"No. We can't keep them here!" I can't have six bloody kids running wild around the A.R.C!" Lester hissed at them.

Before she knew what she was doing, Jess had done it again. She had opened her big mouth one moment too soon, without thinking about what she was going to say first, and suggested something she shouldn't really have suggested.

**BECKER**

"Alright, guys, you just stay in here. Don't worry, we're not going to interrogate you." Becker assured the younger people as they stepped into the interrogation room.

"What's gonna happen now?" Jake asked him. Becker looked at the boy and sighed.

"I... Don't know. But everything will be okay. Like Derek here said, you're in good hands. We'll keep you safe until your anomaly reopens."

Jake nodded.

The last person to step into the room was Molly. She was crying.

Becker wasn't so calm and collected any more.

He panicked. He didn't know what to do. But everyone was staring at he and the twelve year old expectedly.

_"LITTLE GIRL CRYING"_ his brain screamed. _"LITTLE GIRL CRYING!"_

Not thinking and just letting his hidden paternal instincts kick in, he knelt down so that he was eye-level with her.

"Hey, why are you crying?" he asked her softly. She sobbed.

"It's all my fault. It's my fault we're stuck here. I was stupid and we're never gonna get home." she cried, tears streaming down her face.

Becker's heart just about broke.

"No! Its not your fault, Molly!" he said, taking her tiny hands in his own.

Then, she burst into a giant fit of tears. Without thinking, Captain Becker hugged her; she wrapped her little arms around his neck and cried into his shoulder.

"Shh... It's okay. Really, we'll get you home." he assured her.

Behind him, Haley smiled, almost proudly, at the sight.

All of the kids stood in silence, watching as Molly completely broke down and Becker comforted her.

And it just so happened that Jess was walking towards the room at that very moment, and stepped through the door as the scene unfolded.

When she saw big, seemingly emotionally stunted, soldier-boy, action-man Captain Becker hugging the sobbing little girl in the pink jumper, her knees nearly buckled.

"Molly's upset." Jake whispered to Jess, stating the obvious.

Jess just stared in awe for a moment, before her brain nagged at her, and she tried to remember what she had walked there for in the first place.

"Oh... Well, I have some good news!" Jess said cheerily. "Maybe that'll brighten your mood, Molly!"

Molly raised her head from Becker's shoulder to look up at Jess, and wiped her eyes with her sleeves.

It took absolutely all of Jess' willpower for her to not break down crying as well, hug the living daylight out of Molly, adopt her, and then shower Becker with kisses because he was so perfect.

"Errm... I have found a place for you to stay while you wait for the anomaly to reopen!" she cheered, trying to instil some hope in the kids.

Becker looked up at her in confusion. Was she about to say what he thought she was about to say?

"My house!"


	5. Chapter 5

A FEW VISITORS

CHAPTER 5

**JESS**

"Jess, what are you _doing_?" Becker hissed at her as he pulled her out of the interrogation room so they could talk in private.

"Letting them live with me?" she responded quietly.

"Are you crazy? You can't take care of six kids!" he snapped.

"Of course I can. Two can sleep in my room, one on the couch... I'll sleep..." she trailed off when she realised that she didn't, in fact, have enough room. Becker stared at her expectantly.

"Exactly." he said. She sighed.

"Well, where else are they going to stay?" she asked. "There's too many of them to stay in the company apartment. And Matt and Emily barely have enough room for the two of them as it is."

Becker mulled over this in his head for a moment.

"Well... You have your bed, and one couch. Abby and Connor's room is taken, obviously. Maybe the girls... And Sid... can stay with you." he suggested. "Molly and Haley in your bed, and Sid and Nancy on the couch and in a sleeping bag."

Jess nodded, but then realised a small flaw.

"What about me?"

Becker wasn't done with his plan.

"Well... I have a spare room in my flat. Maybe Derek and Jake can stay there. I can sleep on the couch... And you could stay in my room." he said.

Jess blinked.

"I couldn't take your room." she laughed nervously.

"Why not? You're selfless enough to let a bunch of strange kids take yours. Sleeping on my couch is the least I can do to help you out." he said.

Jess hugged him, and squealed in excitement.

"Yay! Oh, _thank you_, Becker! I was going to stay in a hotel! _Thank you!_" she said happily. He smiled to himself and patted her head.

"Okay. Let's go and explain this to the kids."

They went back into the interrogation room, and plans were made.

It was decided that Molly and Nancy would take Jess' bed, and Sid would sleep on the couch at Jess' flat.

Jake (who seemed freaked out and to not be dealing well at all with the situation) didn't want to be kept away from Haley, so he and her would take Becker's spare bed. Derek would sleep in a sleeping bag on Becker's floor somewhere. If things went on too long, he would stay in the company flat on his own.

Becker would sleep on his own couch, and Jess would take his bed. Sorted.

Sorted, until they actually got to their respectable flats.

"_This_ is where you used to live?" Jake said with distaste, as he looked around Becker's flat.

Becker frowned.

"What do you mean, 'used to'? I still do." he said. "And what's wrong with it?"

"Nothing... It's just... Small, and quiet. Kind of... Grey." he mumbled.

"Well, I love it." Jess said happily, doing a twirl in the centre of the room. "And we're all going to be staying here for a while, so you best get used to it."

Jake nodded, and began to go look around in the kitchen.

"Thanks for letting us stay here, mate." Derek said to Becker. "And thanks for giving your apartment up, Jess. It means a lot."

Jess smiled at him, and Becker nodded.

"No problem. It's the least we can do to make you feel at home." Becker told him.

"Well, thanks." Haley said from by the door.

Haley was stood behind Derek, holding her hands behind her back. She looked very soldier-like, constantly standing to attention, Jess thought. Then she realised that Haley- or any of the kids, for that matter- didn't have any other clothes.

"Haley, would you like to come back to my flat with me, and we'll get you some clothes?" Jess asked her. Haley looked at Derek, and then Becker, and then back to Jess.

"Ermm... Okay, I guess. If it's not too much trouble." she said.

"No, not at all. Lets face it, we don't know how long you'll be here for." Jess chirped, and dragged Haley towards the door. "Besides, I need to pick up my things."

"Great. I'll sort Derek and Jake out with some clothes, and... Show them around..." Becker's train of thought was derailed when he noticed Jake actually looking through his cupboards, moving various items around.

Jess drove Haley back to her flat, where she found Abby and Connor showing Sid and Nancy and Molly around.

"Hey, guys! We're here to get Haley some clothes to wear." Jess called to them as she swiftly moved through her flat over to the bedroom. Haley gave them a small wave, and quietly followed the field coordinator.

"Actually, you two need some clothes, as well..." Abby pointed out to Sid and Nancy. The four of them looked at each other, and the similarities of their sizes and styles were soon recognised.

"I don't think that's gonna be a problem." Connor said.

Upon showing her new guest her wardrobe, Jess discovered that Haley wasn't too fond of miniskirts, short dresses, high heels and girly colours.

They eventually found her a couple of old pairs of jeans from when Jess was a teenager that she had (luckily) not thrown away, and a few plain blouses and t-shirts.

Haley decided that her boots were to be worn at all times- she was not getting into a pair of the girly, flowery high heels that Jess had grown so accustomed to wearing.

"Would you like a cup of tea while you're here?" Jess asked the teenager once they had finished wardrobe-raiding.

"Sure." Haley said.

"Jess, can I talk to you for a second?" Connor called over to her. He was stood in the doorway to his and Abby's bedroom, and clearly wanted to have a private conversation. Jess excused herself from Haley, and went to speak to him.

She stepped into Connor's room, and he closed the door behind them.

"What?" she asked.

"It's my fault. I lost the Anomaly Locking Mechanism."

"_What?_"

"Me and Abby didn't come home last night, remember?" he said.

Was that last night? It seemed like an eternity ago.

"Yeah..." she mumbled, remembering her early morning confusion.

"Well, Jack got us tickets to an 'Agnostic Front' concert, see... And we got totally pissed. I can't remember what happened, but we stole a digger and—"

"—You stole a _digger?_!"

"Yes, we stole a fucking JCB digger, Jess, and I also stole the Anomaly Locking Mechanism. And now I don't know where it is." Connor finished.

Jess stared at him in disbelief.

"What am I gonna _do?_" he hissed, clearly distraught with himself.

"Okay, calm down... Tomorrow, I'll help you retrace your steps. We'll find out exactly what happened, and get the mechanism back." she assured him.

He ran a hand through his hair, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay... God, thanks Jess. Becker's right, you are brilliant."

She smiled, and turned to leave the room.

"Oh, wait, Jess—" Connor stopped her.

She looked back at him, as he pulled a piece of ripped beer mat out of his jeans pocket.

"Do you happen to know who a 'Natasha' is?" he asked her, showing her a phone number scribbled onto the coaster.

"No..." she said, shaking her head. He shoved the beer mat back in his pocket.

"Gotcha."

Jess and Connor left the bedroom, and found Haley sipping a cup of tea in the kitchen.

"Oh, did Abby make your tea?" Jess asked her.

"No, I did. And I made you a cup. Two sugars, right?" Haley replied.

Jess stopped in her tracks.

"Yes. That's _exactly_ right. How did you know where everything was?" she asked, exchanging a glance with Connor. Haley looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Err.. Lucky guess?" she laughed nervously.

Jess walked over to her, heels clicking on the floor, eyeing the girl suspiciously.

"Okay, then... Let's finish our tea, and go find the boys. I'm sure Becker is being kept busy..."

**BECKER**

Becker was now regretting letting other people stay in his home.

He had found Derek some clothes, which hadn't been a problem, and a sleeping bag.

Jake, on the other hand, wasn't as easy to dress.

Not only was he picky about his clothes, but Becker was now sure he had ADHD.

He'd ended up with a pair of boxer shorts on his head, and had gone through Becker's bedside cabinet and created three new playlists on his iPod. He then found a dead mobile phone and fixed it, somehow making a long-distance call to Italy in the process, and had sprayed shaving foam all over the bathroom. Then, he ate every chocolate item in the kitchen cupboard, collapsed on the couch, and began surfing TV channels.

All in the space of about 5 minutes.

Derek just chuckled knowingly at the entire scene, while Becker was totally gobsmacked.

He stood over Jake, who was now splayed out on the sofa watching _"Hell's Kitchen"_ and eating ready-salted crisps, completely baffled by the boy's behaviour.

"Jake, I'm not being funny, but we barely know each other. I met you a few hours ago. How can you be so... Comfortable? You don't even know my full name." he said.

Jake didn't even look at the soldier.

"Sure I do... _Hilary_."

Becker froze.

Derek snorted in amusement as Becker's face slowly turned red.

"How... Do you know... My name?" he asked slowly.

Jake could barely suppress his grin, but still didn't look up at Becker.

So Becker turned the TV off.

"Hey—" Jake began to complain, but Becker silenced him.

"—I am demanding you tell me. That's not asking, that's demanding. It's an order. Molly knew my surname. Now, tell me how you know that I'm called Hilary."

He was deadly serious, and Jake's smirk soon faded.

"I can't tell you, I'll get in—"

"—Trouble? Guess what? You're already in trouble. So tell me."

Jake gulped and looked at Derek nervously. Derek shrugged, signalling to his younger friend that he couldn't help him out. It was his own fault.

Becker waited, arms crossed, looking down at Jake with a cold expression.

"Err... I know you. In the future. Future you." he said.

"I already knew that, it's pretty fucking obvious." Becker said calmly. "But I don't just go around broadcasting my first name to people who I don't intend to shoot after they learn it."

"Well... Molly doesn't know your first name." Jake said quietly.

"And _you_ do. And Derek does, because of _you_. So, who else?" Becker questioned further.

Jake panicked. This was not good. He was gonna be in so much trouble.

"Just me and Haley." he squeaked.

"How?" he demanded.

"Listen, I think you're overreacting. I swear to god, I've not told anyone else, in my time or yours. But I really, really, can not tell you why or how I know your first name." Jake said, standing up to face Becker.

When they were stood so close in this miniature face-off, Becker noted how Jake was only about three inches shorter than him; he would be taller than him in a few years.

In fact, he would probably look a lot like him in a few years.

No— he already _did_ look a lot like him. Hazel eyes, same nose, same mouth, brown hair, practically the same build. Same frown, same smile.

And then Captain Becker realised how this teenaged boy from the future knew his first name.

He couldn't believe he hadn't seen it before.

And it explained why Jake was so comfortable around him, in his home, and was used to being such a nuisance near him.

The cogs in Becker's head clicked into place, and things were clear now.

He opened his mouth to ask Jake a question.

"Are you—"

"We're back!" Jess called as she and Haley opened the front door to the flat. Jake looked away from Becker, but Becker continued to stare at Jake.

"Thank _god_!" Derek practically shouted. "Things were getting pretty... Strange, here."

Haley looked at Derek in confusion, who nodded his head towards Jake and Becker. Becker was still staring at the boy, and Haley knew what he had figured out.

And figuring out what he had figured out was entirely forbidden.

"Jake! Come and give your sister a hug!" Haley called from by the door. Jake pulled a face at her.

"What?" he asked, seeming repulsed by the idea.

"Come and give your sister a hug." she said through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, Jake, let's go and hug Haley..." Derek said, grabbing Jake by the shoulders and pulling him away from Captain Becker.

The three kids spoke to eachother in hushed voices, having some sort of urgent conversation, while Becker stared on at them and Jess looked around in confusion.

"What's going on?" she asked Becker, who snapped out of his trance.

"Err... I... Think... We..." he stammered, rubbing his forehead in stress.

"Are you alright?" Jess asked him, concerned about his edgy behaviour.

He sighed and looked at her. She was peering at him with those wide, blue eyes, and seemed slightly worried.

"I think that you and I should go take a walk." he told her.

"What? But—"

"—Leave this lot to get settled, make themselves at home. Besides, I need to talk with you about a few things."

The kids all nodded, murmuring their agreements with the plan, and so Jess obliged by grabbing Becker's coat and following him out of the flat.


	6. Chapter 6

A FEW VISITORS

CHAPTER 6

**JESS**

By her own admission, Jess had been worried when Becker had had a momentary freak-out back at his flat.

He'd actually stammered.

He never stammered, it was uncharacteristic of him; he was the soldier, the brave one, always in control. It was weird.

Weird, or maybe she was overreacting.

Probably the latter.

Either way, when he demanded she go for a walk with him, she had done as he said without any hesitation. A quiet, possibly romantic walk in the park with hunky Becker? Who the fuck would say no to that?

The air outside was pretty chilly, so as they strolled along, Jess found herself getting more and more agitated with the changing colour of her nose.

It had turned red as the wind nipped at it, and she could tell she looked like Rudolph right now. Unless Becker was weirdly attracted to reindeer, she wasn't going to seem particularly sexy and elegant looking like that.

"Jess?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you listening to me? You just looked like you were crossing your eyes behind my back."

Becker gave her a funny look as he asked her the odd question, and Jess realised that, in order to see her nose, she must have been pulling the freakiest faces.

"Sorry. Go on..." she squeaked, and he sighed.

"What I wanted to talk to you about..." he began.

_Asking me on a date? Marrying me? Having lots and lots of babies with me?_ Jess' brain suggested eagerly, as she tried to keep her face straight.

"... These kids. That came through the anomaly." he continued. Jess listened. "Have you noticed anything—"

"Familiar? About them?" she finished.

"Exactly!"

Jess nodded.

"I know! It's the weirdest thing, isn't it? It's as if they know us! And obviously they do- in the future, I mean- but I feel like we're somehow—"

"Connected to them?" Becker finished.

She nodded.

"And we know they're A.R.C employees. But what if they're... You know... Our kids?" Jess said.

Becker stopped walking and stared at her, his face turning slightly red.

"No! Not _our_ kids, as in me and you!" she corrected herself quickly. "No! That's not what I meant! Silly..." she falsely laughed.

Becker breathed a sigh of relief, and they continued walking.

Jess had covered up her little blunder, but in her mind, she suspected that a certain brother-sister pair that they had met that morning were the exact mix of herself and Captain Becker.

And a part of her (the same part that noticed how he was staring at Jake when he freaked out, and took note of how red his face had just turned when she suggested that) knew that he was thinking the exact same thing.

"I mean the children of the team, in general." she said. Becker nodded.

"I agree. I mean, just look at Sid and Nancy. Are they clones of Abby and Connor, or what?" he chuckled. Jess giggled.

"I know! Connor totally had a panic attack when he saw that boy this morning!" she said.

The pair laughed, and sat down on a bench.

"Okay, so Sid and Nancy are Connor and Abby's kids, that's for sure." Jess said. "What about the others?"

Becker pondered this for a moment.

"Well, don't tell anyone I said this, but little Molly looks an awful lot like Emily," Becker said. "She could be her and Matt's, hence the slight Irish accent."

"What about Derek?" Jess inquired. Becker looked sad for a moment.

"Actually... He reminds me of..." he trailed off, as she stared at him awaiting the answer. "You know, I feel quite stupid even saying this, but... Danny."

Jess had never really met the famous Danny Quinn, but from what she gathered, Derek would have fit the description as his son.

"Good. I see you have been thinking about this too, then." she told him. Becker shrugged.

"So that's Sid, Nancy, Molly, Derek..." he counted.

Did she dare ask him? _Yes._

"What about... Jake and Haley? Who might their parents be?"

There was a silence between them.

Becker looked over at her, and she gazed back at him.

She glanced over his features: the hazel eyes that Jake had, the hair, the eyebrows, the nose, the lips, the jawline, the ears, the cheekbones... So similar, in every aspect.

And herself? Haley's height and figure, Haley's blue eyes, Haley's nose and lips and chin and cheeks.

Someone could have said that Jake was Becker's son, and Haley was Jess' daughter, and that they weren't even related to one another. But there were flaws with that scenario.

Firstly, Jake and Haley had already admitted that they were siblings.

Secondly, Jake completely had Jess' personality, and Haley completely had Becker's.

It was undeniable.

Becker knew it; Jess knew it.

The air didn't feel so cold anymore, as Jess has completely forgotten about the weather altogether. She had forgotten about the time, she had forgotten about the park. She had forgotten about the new living arrangements; she forgot about anomalies, and all about her very red nose, for just a moment.

All she could think about was that she and Captain Hilary Becker might end up together, with two beautiful children.

That was what she wanted, after all; she thought about it all the live-long day. _She wanted him to ask her on a date, and marry her, and have lots and lots of babies with her._

Becker cleared his throat, pulling Jess back into reality.

"I don't know." he said, quietly. "I don't know who Jake and Haley's parents are."

She smiled halfheartedly at him, and he back at her.

"Well... I wonder what year they're from?" she asked cheerily, changing the subject.

Becker sat up straight, and scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"Yeah... If Sid and Nancy are, say, seventeen... Then we'd just have to figure out what year they're from, and we could work out when Abby and Connor had them." he stated.

A lightbulb went off in Jess' brain.

"Oh my god! Becker, you're a genius!" she cheered, smacking him on the arm. He raised his eyebrows at her.

"Why?"

"Because! That's it! We'll figure out when Sid and Nancy were born, and then work out how many years from now it'll happen!" she laughed.

"Are we allowed to do that?" he asked quietly. She glanced around cautiously.

"It could be our little secret. We don't have to tell Connor or Abby, or anyone." she whispered.

Becker grinned.

"I think that is a very interesting idea." he said in a hushed voice. "Jessica Parker... I never would have suspected you to be so much of a rule-breaker."

Jess smiled cheekily.

"We may as well take advantage of the situation. After all, it's not every day six kids from the future, that look exactly like us and work at the A.R.C, walk through an anomaly, is it?"

He shook his head.

"No, it is not, Miss Parker."

Of course, Jess' real intentions were far from announced.

She actually wanted to _confirm_ that Haley and Jake were the children of she and Becker, and then find out when _they_ were born.

That way, she could work out how long it would be before she and Becker got together, and when she would have her first child.

"Wow!" she squealed as they stood up and began walking back the way they came. "This is so exciting!" She was, of course, excited about her own future- Becker didn't know this.

"I know." he laughed. "Abby and Connor are gonna have _babies_. And we'll know when, even before they do. I like the idea of that. It's good to be prepared."

Jess laughed at how very right he was.

**BECKER**

"I wonder how old we'll— I mean, Abby and Connor— will be?" Jess wondered out loud.

Becker glanced at her in amusement. She was such a character.

"I mean, Abby's only young, and Connor's like a kid himself. I— personally— wouldn't want to have a baby too young. Right now I'm only 21, for god's sake!" she laughed.

Becker laughed along with her, but stopped when he remembered that fact. She was 21. Turning 22 in less than a week.

He had a birthday party to plan.

"Oh, god..." he said, a little too loudly.

"What?" she immediately asked.

"Oh, nothing... Just, I forgot something... And now I've remembered it..." he mumbled.

Jess shrugged, thinking nothing of it, and continued babbling on about why she would like to have a baby girl first.

He would have to spend tomorrow shopping for cake and food and presents, and even though it was for Jess' surprise party, he still hated shopping.

They arrived back at the flat, and found Jake, Haley and Derek sat quietly on the sofa. Jake was avoiding making eye-contact with Becker.

Becker sighed, and tried to push the idea that Jake was his son to the back of his mind. He needed to be professional, be a soldier, and stay in control. He hadn't been hired to involve himself in the lives of people he came into contact with, even these kids.

But he was still going to help Jess find out what year Sid and Nancy were born.

And, truthfully, by 'Sid and Nancy', he meant 'Haley and Jake'.

"Well, guys, here's what we're going to do. Me and Jess just had a talk, and we're going to take you over to her flat this afternoon so that you're not separated from the others. That way, things won't seem so hectic." Becker said. Jess nodded.

"Okay, great." Derek said. He stood, as did Haley, and finally Jake.

Jake was being quiet; clearly the other two had instructed him to do so.

Jess noticed this, and feeling sorry for the boy, offered to take him for a milkshake in her car on the way. That way, he wouldn't have to make awkward conversation with Becker.

Haley, Derek and Becker got into Becker's car, and drove to the other flat while Jess and Jake took the milkshake detour.

"You two seem to be dealing with this whole thing very well." Becker said after a few minutes of sitting quietly in the car.

"Well... Me and Haley have been stuck on the wrong end of an anomaly before." Derek admitted.

"Really?" Becker asked.

"Yeah. We were in the Jurassic together for about six months, a couple of years ago." Haley said from the back seat.

"Wow... The only people I know who have done that and survived are Abby and Connor... And Danny, of course." he said..

"Danny?" Derek asked suddenly, flinching slightly.

Becker glanced at him, before turning his attention back to the road. Perhaps he would have some more information for Jess before they even arrived at the flat.

"Danny Quinn," he said. "My old teammate."

Derek nodded, and stared out of the window.

"Why? Do you... _know_ a Danny?" Becker asked him. He didn't want to seem like he was prying, but at the same time he was incredibly curious.

"Yep."

"Do you know Danny Quinn?"

"Yep."

Becker suddenly had a million questions. _Did Danny come back in the future? Was he okay? Did he rejoin the team? What happened?_

"Wow." was all he could get out.

Derek smiled crookedly and looked over his shoulder at Haley, who Becker could see grin back at him in the rearview mirror.

"I know Danny Quinn very well, actually." he laughed.

Becker smiled widely. He supposed there was hope for Danny in the future, then. That was good. That was _awesome._

He hoped to find out more about how exactly Derek knew Danny, but the question was left unanswered. Deliberately, Derek had given him a little hint, but then cut him off.

Well, Danny would have done the same thing, wouldn't he?

**CONNOR**

Connor was having a very strange day. And one of the strangest parts of it was when he and Molly, of all people, were driving in Abby's car to Matt's flat.

Everything was so muddled.

He had to admit, though, that the drive was fun. With all the stress of the day, spending time with a twelve year old (and a smart twelve year old at that), was kinda fun.

Jess and Becker had showed up at the flat ten minutes before hand with Derek, Haley and Jake in tow.

Sid and Nancy and the other three went and sat in the lounge, and Connor could see that they were trying to have a serious conversation; but with Molly sitting by, intently listening in, that wasn't going to happen.

Abby had gotten out a bottle of 'Apothic Red' wine (her new favourite) for herself, Connor, Becker and Jess, and then realised that there was only a quarter of the bottle left.

So, deciding to kill two birds with one stone, Connor had offered to take Molly out with him while he went to get some more wine.

That way, the older kids could talk without worrying about upsetting her, and he could pick up some well-needed booze at the same time.

So, they played eye-spy for a while, he told her who Bruce Springsteen was, and she told him what her favourite flavours of ice-cream were.

Then, she asked him something that would result in him driving to Matt's apartment.

"Can I have some popcorn when we get back?"

"Yes."

Then, Connor remembered his experiment that took place about a week ago involving melting a beer bottle; it failed, and Abby and Jess had been very upset that they no longer owned a working microwave.

"No. Sorry. No microwave." he said. Molly sighed. "Unless... Jess used to have a popcorn machine, one of those that you add the oil to and the kernels, and put the lid on and it popped them... I think she leant it to Matt."

Molly sat up giddily.

"Can we go and get it from Matt and Emily's flat? Please?"

Connor told her that he didn't want to bother them. Molly asked again. And again. _And again._ She was persistent, determined, and damn manipulative. In the end, he found himself driving to Matt's flat.

The conversation changed, and Molly decided to ask Connor all about his relationship with Abby. It was funny how a car ride with a twelve-year old could help you organise your thoughts.

"So what about you?" he asked her.

"What _about_ me?" she giggled in turn.

"Well, I've told you about my life. What about yours?"

Molly shrugged.

"I can't tell you too much... But I can tell you a little, tiny bit about my boyfriend." she whispered.

"You have a boyfriend?" Connor asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yes. His name is Lester."

Connor looked at Molly with utter confusion and horror.

"What? Not James Lester- he's a bit old for you, isn't he?"

Molly laughed loudly.

"No! My boyfriend is just named after James Lester!" He's twelve, too, silly." she giggled.

"He's named after _our_ James Lester? Who the hell are his parents?" Connor asked. Who would name their kid after James Lester?

Molly smiled.

"Can't say." she said.

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"_No!_"

"I'm going out of my way to get you a bloody popcorn machine, remember?"

"I still can't say!"

"Tell me, and I'll give you all of my old Pokemon cards."

Molly broke into another laughing fit, finding everything Connor said utterly hilarious.

Then she gasped in realisation.

"What?" Connor asked.

She fumbled around in her jeans pocket, before pulling a worn Pokemon card out. Pikachu was pictured on the front.

"Is this... Yours?" she asked, waving it in his face.

All the while trying to avoid crashing the car, he took a peek at the card.

"It certainly looks like mine. Who knows, it could be." he said.

Molly turned the card over: it had the letters "CT" written in large, red permanent marker on the back, and a smiley face scribbled onto the corner.

"Okay, that's freaky, because this card is in a box somewhere at my mum's house." Connor said, snatching it off her and studying it.

"Where did you get this?" Connor asked her, handing it back.

"Lester gave it to me." she muttered.

"And where did Lester get it?" he asked.

"His dad gave it to him."

Connor paused.

"Molly, is Lester related to Sid and Nancy?" he questioned.

Molly waited a moment, before nodding very slowly.

"What's his middle name?" Connor tried asking.

Molly sensed that he was serious, and decided not to tell him she'd get in trouble if she answered.

"Luke."

"After—"

"—Luke Skywalker."

_Of course._


	7. Chapter 7

A FEW VISITORS

CHAPTER 7

**JESS**

"So, Jake. I see you like chocolate almost as much as I do."

"My diet primarily consists of chocolate products... As long as it's not orange chocolate. I hate orange flavoured chocolate. It tastes funny."

Jess smiled.

She and Jake were walking out of Shakeaway, Jess with her chocolatey Ferrero Rocher milkshake, and Jake with his also chocolatey Cadbury's caramel milkshake.

They got back in Jess' car, each of them slurping their extra large drinks in silent bliss, and Jess started the engine.

"I think orange chocolate tastes funny, too. It's just... _Wrong._" Jess agreed after a minute.

"So wrong." Jake added.

"Well, it seems like we have a lot in common, Jake." she said happily, smiling at him.

"More than you know..." he mumbled under his breath.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing."

"So, I thought we could get to know each other a little better, see what else we have in common." she suggested. "Firstly, what's your surname?"

"You already tried this when we were looking for Molly back at the A.R.C." he said bluntly.

_Fuck_, Jess swore in her mind.

If he was her son, he had obviously inherited her brains.

"I'm not trying anything, I'm just... Curious." she said, as innocently as possible.

"Well, curiosity is prohibited." he said.

She rolled her eyes.

"Come on! I'm your friend, we can talk! We have lots in common. Our love of chocolate, shoes, our pickiness about clothing, our intelligence, our jobs as field coordinator..."

Jake thought about this for a moment, taking another gulp of his milkshake.

"True..." he muttered.

"Yes. So, let's hear some other stuff. _Not_ including your surname."

He scanned his brain for something insignificant to tell her, while she waited patiently.

She was going to get some useful information out of him; the milkshake practically guaranteed that— it was basically a truth serum.

"I don't like my sisters." he said after a long time.

Jess sighed exasperatedly.

"Duh, I know that! I see the way you and Haley— hold on, did you say _sisters?_ Plural?"

Jake stared at her blankly, drinking his milkshake and nodding ever so slightly.

"You have other siblings? Other than Haley?"

"Yep."

Jess couldn't contain her smile.

"Tell me about them!" she ordered loudly.

Jake paused.

"Well, you don't know my surname, and you don't know what year I'm from... Those are the things we're really not supposed to say. But nobody said anything about family and siblings and stuff, so... Why not?" he said, shrugging.

Jess was practically jumping up and down in her seat at this point.

"Haley's the oldest, obviously. Then there's me, the best one." his hazel eyes gleamed with self-pride.

Then he took on a darker expression.

"Then there's Victoria— she's 14. There's only a ten-and-a-half-month age gap between us, but we don't get along very well. She's too... Gossipy. Then there's Bryony- Bry, we call her- who is 11. She just started my high school. She's a total geek. Bookworm, you know?" he said, taking mother slurp of his milkshake.

Jess was smiling like the Cheshire cat.

"Are you the only boy?" she asked.

"Yeah, feel sorry for me." he snapped. "And it gets worse. We thought Bryony was the last one, but then there was an... _accident_, a year ago."

"What do you mean?" Jess asked him.

"Sophie." he sighed. "She's a year old. Came as a surprise to all of us. There's a sixteen year age gap between her and Haley, you know."

Jess raised her eyebrows in surprise.

_Whoops_.

"But we love little Sophie, even if she was an accident. I was pretty pissed off at first, I didn't want another baby in the house. But she's my basically my favourite, now. And Mum and Dad totally fell in love with her." he explained.

Jess, for some reason, felt like screaming, but the moment was ruined when Jake burped loudly.

"Sorry... Milkshake..." he mumbled apologetically, before continuing. "I was kinda hoping she was a boy, though. It would be cool to have a little brother."

"Well, who knows? You didn't expect Sophie... Maybe you'll end up with a brother one day. Accidents happen." Jess chuckled, nervously.

"Gotta love those accidents, eh?" Jake laughed. "That's how Haley came along."

Jess nearly slammed onto the brakes.

"Haley was an accident?" she asked.

"Apparently. I mean, I don't know the whole story, but Mum and Dad hadn't been dating that long before they were pregnant with her, that's for sure. In fact... I think Bryony and I were the only two that weren't accidents. Jesus, you'd think they'd have _some _self control..." he said, scathingly.

Jess glared at him, before reminding herself that she might not actually be his mother.

_Oh, bullshit_.

She was his mum, and he knew it, and was just using this situation as an excuse to wind her up.

_Clever little bastard._

"And what year was Haley born?" she asked. He looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"Really? That's a poor attempt. You're going to have to put a bit more effort in than that if you want to get the 'prohibited' stuff out of me." he said, smirking.

He knew exactly what he was doing!

Jess huffed, and decided to ignore him.

If Haley and Derek had indeed told him to keep his mouth shut, the message had clearly gone in one ear and straight out the other.

**MATT**

"Hiya, mate." Connor had panted, totally out of breath after racing the little girl up seven flights of stairs to his flat.

Why they hadn't taken the elevator, god only knows.

"Hi..." he'd replied, looking at the pair suspiciously.

Connor Temple and the little girl named Molly were stood at his front door, Connor looking like he was about to puke from exhaustion, and Molly staring at him with a maniacal grin.

"Can I help you?" he asked them.

"Yeah, actually. I came to get Abby's popcorn machine." Connor panted.

"Alright, come in."

Connor and Molly stepped inside Matt's flat, and he closed the door behind them. Emily came out of the bedroom to greet them.

"You know, I don't know what's so great about this 'popcorn'. I found it quite bland without the salt." Emily muttered, more to herself than anybody else, as Matt got the machine down from a cupboard.

"Popcorn is awesome. How can you not like popcorn?" Molly asked her, looking almost offended. Emily blinked.

"Okay, well, thanks for this machine, mate. Sorry to disturb you." Connor said, as he handed him the popcorn maker.

"No problem. What are you lot doing?" he asked.

"We've got all of our 'guests' round at Jess' flat. So that they're more comfortable and can talk about what's going on together, you know?" Connor explained. "You're welcome to come over for a drink, if you want." he offered.

Matt looked at Emily.

"Oh! Please, please, please, PLEASE, come over!" Molly pleaded to Emily, jumping up and down giddily on the spot. Emily laughed at her.

"I guess that's a yes, then..." Emily said to Matt, who shrugged and nodded to Connor.

Matt had noticed several things about the young adults that came throughout the anomaly that morning, but had paid special attention to Molly in particular.

First of all, he'd noticed, she looked exactly like Emily. The soft facial features, the beautiful green eyes, the tousled, brown hair. Just like the woman he'd accidentally fallen in love with.

Secondly, she had that slight Irish accent. As though it was muddled with the English accents of school kids and friends and people around her that influenced her speech, but the Irish still stuck through and was the base of her voice, prominent at times and unnoticeable at others. Like she was raised with it, and learned to speak with it, but it had been... diluted.

Thirdly, he saw, that she may have looked like Emily in many obvious ways, but in a few of her features, he saw no one but himself.

Her smile. It was his.

The way she moved her eyebrows— him.

Her personality? All him. Her determination and forcefulness that she used to manipulate people was one hundred percent his own, with a tad Emily thrown in.

This girl mirrored him and Ms. Merchant, completely.

Not to make any assumptions, of course.

These were just things he'd noticed.

And noticing the things that he'd noticed only made him surer of his decision to go and get drunk with Connor.

He had just planned on staying in, anyway. Emily had been nagging him to watch "Bride Wars" with her, as she wanted to find out what the customs were with modern-day weddings, and learn about marriages that weren't, in fact, arranged. He really didn't want to watch "Bride Wars", though, and so going out with Connor seemed like a perfectly harmless way to put that event off another night.

Besides, he suspected Emily might have been trying to send him a message lately.

The films she had rented from Blockbuster also included "27 Dresses", "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Love Actually", "Bridesmaids", "Mamma Mia", "Steel Magnolias", "Father of the Bride", "The Princess Bride", "My Best Friend's Wedding", "Made of Honour" and many others.

Perhaps she was hinting at something.

And so Molly had her way again, and before long, they were all at Jess' flat.

**BECKER**

"Come on, Becker, have a drink! Abby pleaded with him.

He, Abby and Jess were stood around in Jess' kitchen, and the 'visitors' were sat in the lounge. Jess had drained the rest of the 'Apothic Red' bottle, Abby had had the last four cans of Budweiser from her fridge, and they were currently waiting for Connor to come back with Molly and more booze.

"No, I'm the designated driver." he said for the tenth time that evening.

"Oh, come on, you can get a taxi." Abby moaned. "Stop being such a party pooper."

"No. And it's not because I enjoy being the only sober person in the room, and it's not because I'm totally in love with my glass of Pepsi. It's because I want to drive people home safely, and there are children in my care. So go ahead and get pissed, ladies, but you're not getting me drunk." he told them, causing Abby to pull a pouty face like a petulant toddler.

"Hey, guys, we're back," Connor called from the front door as Molly skipped into the flat. Everyone turned to look at him. "And I brought Matt and Emily with me!"

Matt gave them a quick wave, and Emily smiled.

"And I brought _booze!"_ Connor cheered, doing a little dance on his way over to the kitchen. Abby joined in with the dance, and they opened bottles of wine and cans of beer, looking quite ridiculous as they did so.

_They are so meant for each other, so they can act stupid as a couple_, Becker thought.

"Becker, are you not having a drink?" Matt asked him. He shook his head.

"I'm the driver." he said.

"Typical." Matt mumbled, taking a can of Warsteiner off of Connor.

"Becker, can I talk to you for a minute?" Jess asked him quietly.

"Sure."

She lead him to her bedroom while Abby and Connor were distracted with Matt and Emily, and closed the door quietly behind them.

"I found out more stuff." she said excitedly in a hushed voice.

"Great, me too." Becker replied.

"You first." she said.

"Okay, well, I know for a fact that Derek knows Danny Quinn. Very well, he said. But he didn't say how. And I also know that Haley and Derek were stuck in the Jurassic for about six months a couple of years ago."

"Ooh, that's interesting. Could he be Danny's son? Danny's son would definitely survive in the Jurassic." Jess said.

"I think so." Becker whispered.

"I found out that Jake and Haley have other siblings." she squeaked happily.

Becker remained silent. He didn't really know what to say to that.

Should he be happy, or freaked out? Or pretend he couldn't care less?

"Yep, they have a sister named Victoria, and a sister named Bryony! And then, last year- in their time, of course- their parents had another baby, by accident, called Sophie!" she finished.

"S-Sophie?" Becker choked.

"Yes. There's a sixteen year age gap between her and Haley, can you believe that?" she whispered. Becker shook his head and chewed the inside of his lip nervously.

"But I still haven't found out his surname, or what year he is from, or when he was born." Jess said. Then, she noticed that Becker had gone very pale. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. Yeah. I'm good." he said, a little too quickly for her liking.

"Okay... Let's get back to the others, then." she said, pulling him back out of the room.

Abby, Connor, Matt and Emily were laughing loudly about something Lester had said that morning by accident, and the kids in the lounge were giggling about something, too.

It looked like a happy scene, overall.

_Happy, until about 1:15 am._

Up until this point in the evening, everything had been going smoothly.

Jake had set up Connor's X-Box, and he and Sid had begun playing "Halo: Reach".

Nancy was sitting on the arm of their couch, pretending to be paying attention to their game, but in fact eavesdropping on the adult's conversation. She was enjoying listening to them, obviously, and Becker noticed her smiling to herself every time Connor did something stupid.

Haley had sat talking with Derek for most of the evening, spare the moments when he had snuck outside a couple of times— which, Becker suspected, had something to do with the pack of Marlboro cigarettes he kept in his jeans pocket.

Becker watched the way Haley and Derek interacted; they were close, closer than any of their other teammates (with the exception of the twins). They were definitely the most mature of all their friends, and it was probably due to the fact that they'd been stuck in the Jurassic together.

He couldn't imagine what Abby and Connor, and Danny, had gone through (or in Danny's case, were still going through). Being stuck in a different, completely alien, time period... It seemed enough to drive one insane. Haley must have been fifteen, Derek seventeen— they were so young to be put through that.

Clearly they had been taught how to survive by the right people.

He wondered who said people might have been.

And then he wondered how, if in the future he happened to have a daughter, he might react to her seeing a boy. Or dating at all.

Or dating Danny Quinn's son.

He wasn't liking the idea of it, that was for sure.

While all of the older kids sat around, as comfortable as they could get in the hands of such strangers, young Molly was fast asleep on Sid's shoulder.

The kids were behaving well.

The adults by the 1:00 mark, however, were getting a little... _Stupid._

And Becker was the only sober one.

First of all, Connor burst out laughing. Becker wasn't surprised at this— he knew that after the amount of Stella Artois he'd consumed, everything seemed hilarious.

"What are you laughing at?" Abby asked, trying not to slur her words.

Connor gasped for air, and calmed himself down.

"We d-drank all the b-beer!" he whispered hoarsely, before bursting out into another fit of laughter.

Matt and Abby erupted into a loud chorus of laughter that would surely wake the neighbours, joining Connor in the blissful drunken state.

Becker had never seen Matt drunk; it was disturbing to see the team leader, who was always so in control and sensible, acting so... Loose.

"And guess what?" Emily shouted from the counter nearby. Everyone looked at her. She giggled cheekily and waved two empty bottles of wine in the air. "Me and Jess drank all the wine, too!" she laughed.

Connor, Abby, Matt and Jess laughed loudly like a pack of cackling hyenas, causing the younger generation of the team to look over at them. Jake looked confused, and Molly was beginning to stir.

"Okay, guys, listen— Molly fell asleep over there, so maybe we should just keep it down a little bit." Becker told them, lowering his voice in an attempt to get them to copy. They all nodded very seriously.

Emily giggled.

"Do you want to know what I think?" she whispered.

"Hell. Yes." Connor whispered back.

The Lady stepped towards the group, glancing at each of them with a mischievous glint in her eye and giggling every once in a while.

"I think..." she said, her voice barely audible it was so quiet. She pointed dramatically at the kids in the lounge. "That those lot... Are _our_ kids."

Becker looked around for any bad reactions.

But none came.

Abby and Connor began laughing like Muttley from "Wacky Races", their knees buckling from the hilarity and forcing them to cling to each other for support.

Matt closed his eyes and nodded, smiling wisely to himself.

Jess bit her lip and giggled anxiously.

It wasn't as bad as he'd expected.

But then Matt spoke up.

"I think so too, Emily." he laughed. Connor and Abby laughed even harder. "And I know which one's ours."

_Uh oh._

Emily gasped, and he motioned for her to come closer to him. She stumbled towards him and cupped her hands around her ear so that he could whisper to her.

He said something, and Connor, Abby and Jess fell silent on cue.

Emily pulled away from him, and nodded. Matt nodded too.

And then they both started laughing, falling against each other like idiots as Connor and Abby had been doing just seconds before.

"He said 'Molly'!" she squeaked quietly, jumping up and down on the spot in excitement.

Jess, Abby and Connor did the same, with Connor looking incredibly feminine and silly as he did so.

"I know! I th-think so t-too!" Abby hiccupped. "Sh-she looks just l-like you."

This isn't good, Becker thought. If things kept going this way, who knew what would end up being said?

"Sh-she looks just like _me?_ Please, have you _seen _Sid and Nancy?" Emily said back.

Abby gasped and looked at Connor, who had just finished yawning.

"Oh, don't— don't even get me started," he snapped, seeming suddenly pissed off. "On _those_ two. I nearly had a fucking mental breakdown today, because they look- like- they look- like us." he slurred, pointing lazily to himself and his fiancee.

"And guess what?" Jess said loudly.

All of the kids in the lounge looked over at her.

"Becker thinks that Derek is Danny's-_mph!_"

Jess began to speak some words which were not up for discussion, but Becker covered her mouth to stop her, muffling her speech.

"What did she say?" Derek asked, standing up from his spot on the couch.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." Becker assured him quickly. "Right, Jess?"

He took his hand away from her mouth, and she shot him a glare that said she didn't appreciate what he just did.

"Right." she snapped back.

Becker breathed a sigh of relief.

Prematurely, it would seem.

"And I think that Jaley and Hake are mine and Becker's babies!" she shouted.

Becker's jaw dropped.

_Shit._

And, simultaneously, Haley and Jake's jaws dropped.

Jess laughed hysterically to herself, with everyone stood around watching her, and then realised what she had done. She gasped and covered her mouth.

"I'm sorry!" she whispered, looking directly at Becker. "I didn't mean to—"

Then, Jessica Parker's five-inch heels betrayed her.

She tripped clumsily over her own feet and fell forward, smacking her head hard on the edge of the granite countertop.

Emily shrieked.

Molly woke up.

Connor and Abby gasped.

Derek needed a smoke.

Matt sighed.

Becker panicked.

Jess was out cold.

**a/n: Thank you so much to everyone who has read and reviewed this story! I am so grateful for all of your support.**

**Merci à Mijo54 !**

**And special thanks to Prawn Crackers for coming up with the names of Lester, Victoria, Sophie, (and many others that have not yet been revealed), and your endless inspiration!**

**You are all awesome guys! :D**


	8. Chapter 8

A FEW VISITORS

CHAPTER 8

**JESS**

The last thing she remembered was feeling really bad about something.

She tripped. She smacked her head. It would have hurt a lot more if she hadn't drank so much wine.

When she came to, she was lying in a bed— a bloody comfortable bed, at that— and the bed sheets wrapped around her felt soft and smelt nice and made her want to drift back off to sleep.

She could hear that familiar rainfall pattering against the window, but she knew she wasn't in her own bedroom or her own bed, like any regular morning. Compared to this, her mattress might as well have been made of bricks and needles and sandpaper— it was as though she was lying in the bed of the goddess Aphrodite herself.

The comfort of the bed was almost enough to make her forget the pounding headache she had, or ignore the way her forehead throbbed and burned when she moved her facial muscles. She felt hot and achey and bruised all over, too, and as sick as a dog.

But it was her fault for drinking. And, god, while Jake and Haley and the other kids were in her care... Why couldn't she have behaved more like Becker?

And then she realised whose bed she was in.

He'd sacrificed _this_ bed for her until the future-kids went home?

_This_ _bed?_

While he slept on the couch?

Was he a _saint_?

God, she could get used to waking up in this bed every morning.

Why wasn't she shagging this man yet?

And why were her thought processes so strange this morning? Perhaps she was still a little bit drunk...

Jess closed her eyes tightly, trying to ignore the growing pain in her skull, but opened them again when she heard the door creak open.

Becker's face appeared, peaking into the room, and she smiled weakly at him.

He has nice hair, was the first thing that came to her mind.

"Hey..." he said quietly. "How are you doing?"

"Good." she croaked, he voice coming out raspy and shaky.

He stepped into the dark room and closed the door behind him, walking over to her and switching on the lamp beside the bed.

"You don't sound too good." he said, tilting his head sympathetically at her. She sighed, and he took a seat next to her. "Then again, you have a hangover and a concussion, so I don't really expect you to be as bright as a daisy."

Jess changed the subject, to the only thing she could think about at that moment.

"I'm so sorry." she began. "I don't remember too much about last night, to be honest, but I know I feel really bad about something. I think I said—"

"Jess. Don't worry about it."

She stopped speaking, and her conscience relaxed slightly.

Becker grinned in amusement, and something told Jess he was finding whatever she'd done quite funny.

"Everyone was far too drunk. You didn't say anything that I haven't dealt with, anyway, and it's not your fault." he assured her.

Jess smiled in relief.

"Thanks."

She propped herself up on her elbows, but a surge of dizziness hit her as her very unstable equilibrium threw a wobbler.

"No, no. You're not getting up, Miss Parker. Doctor's orders." Becker said, gently pushing her back down onto the pillow.

"Did you say before that I have a concussion? Did I go to the hospital?" she asked confusedly, shutting her eyes tightly to try and stop the room from spinning.

She felt like she was in a tumble-dryer.

"Don't you remember?" he asked her. "Of course not... Well, yes, Derek and I took you to the hospital. You were completely out of it for about five minutes, and then on the drive there, you came to. But you weren't acting right, you were talking all sorts of crap. The doctors examined you. Turns out you have a concussion, and you split your forehead open. Seven stitches."

"Oh... Wow." Jess gingerly felt the area on her forehead that hurt so intensely, and indeed, there were stitches.

"Yep. Apparently your countertops have very sharp edges… We had to keep you awake for eight hours, too."

"Eight hours?" she yelped. "I was awake for eight hours, and I don't remember any of it?"

"Apparently not. You were very groggy, talking about some of the strangest things, including killing a miniature poodle of some sort." Becker said.

Jess groaned.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"It's six o'clock. In the afternoon. On Thursday." he said.

It was Thursday? She'd spent almost an entire day asleep?

Well, this bed was so damn comfortable, she couldn't blame herself...

"What about work?" she asked.

"Lester was understanding, to a certain degree, of course. No new anomaly alerts, so it's not a major problem; Connor watched the A.D.D for you. And I took the day off to stay here."

Becker, the man married to his job, had taken the day off to look after poor little her.

Jess was so grateful, it hurt her head even more.

"Thank you. Thank you so much for looking after me." she said.

He smiled, a heartfelt smile, that showed he felt appreciated.

"It's no problem whatsoever, Miss Parker. Now, I know this sounds crazy, but you should get some more sleep. Your brain needs to heal. Meanwhile, I'll go pick up your painkillers from the chemist."

She sighed and nodded, and Becker stood and turned the lamp off once more.

He left the room, and she was alone in the darkness once more, listening to the familiar rainfall pattering against the window in the ridiculously comfortable bed.

**DEREK**

Today had certainly not turned out the way Derek Quinn had predicted it would, that was for sure.

Firstly, he was stuck in the year 2012.

Secondly, he'd seen six o'clock pass about five times in what felt like the span of twenty four hours, which just made no sense at all.

Thirdly, he'd witnessed the seemingly sensible adults who raised him get totally pissed, and then rushed a young version of the Jess Parker he knew to the hospital.

Quite frankly, though, all of the other kids were overjoyed that they'd seen their 'responsible' parents get totally shit-faced and drunk; it was hilarious, and it was something none of them would ever forget when they were next being lectured on their behaviour.

When Derek had woken up that morning, in his world, he'd done the usual.

Breakfast, showered, dressed, driven to work, bugged Colin Lester, filed his long-overdue report on the raptor that had wreaked havoc in Madame Tussaud's last month, tested Nancy's security system for any weak spots, flirted with Haley, argued with Haley, made out with Haley in storage room 27-J, helped Sid carry the new menagerie equipment inside, played hangman with Molly while she waited for her dad to arrive back at work, shot Jake with the newly modified EMD gun, and fell through a giant fucking anomaly.

That then proceeded to close up.

That last part, however, wasn't "the usual".

And now, he was stood in the flat of one Captain Hilary Becker, wondering if god hated him or he was just born unlucky.

Perhaps having outrageously bad luck was just imprinted into your genes if you were the son of Danny Quinn.

Becker reemerged from his bedroom, in which Jess was currently lying with a nasty head injury, and picked up his coat.

"I'm going to pick up Jess' painkillers from the chemist, and get some lucozade and maltesers and things. I'll be back soon." he said, heading for the front door.

Derek watched him from his place in the kitchen, leaning with his arms folded against a countertop.

"Well, I think you should get some sleep when you get back, mate. You've practically been awake for days." he laughed.

"I know. But Jess is my primary concern at the moment, so I'm focusing on her. Sleep can come later. Bye."

And with those words, the A.R.C's Head of Security was gone.

Derek sighed, and ran a hand through his auburn hair tiredly. He was exhausted.

"Maybe _you_ should get some sleep. You look more tired than him." a familiar voice said.

Derek looked up and saw that Haley had joined him, having just stepped out of the spare bedroom.

She closed the door behind her, and crossed her arms, smirking at him the ways she always did.

"Me? Tired? Well, that's odd... I've been getting so much rest lately..." he said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. Haley chuckled at him.

He stood up straight and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Can't you sleep?" he asked her.

"No. Jake sounds like a vacuum cleaner when he snores, and he keeps hitting me in his sleep and talking." she spat. Derek grinned smugly.

She walked over to the counter and looked up at him, the height difference between them noticeable as she stood at only 5'4" while he was 6'2".

"You alright there, Smurfette?" he asked cheekily.

"I'm fine, thanks, Dumbo." she quipped.

"I'm glad to hear that, Thumbelina."

"I'm not that small."

"Of course not, munchkin."

"Shut up."

"Sure thing, half pint."

"Seriously, shut up."

"No problem, oompa loompa."

"Stop talking."

"Okay, inch-high-private-eye."

"Derek, shut the fuck up."

"What? Don't feel bad, you're just vertically challenged, babe."

Clearly having had enough of the conversation, Haley punched Derek in the stomach.

He coughed and spluttered, doubling over in pain and clutching his abdomen.

"Oh, sorry, what's that? I couldn't hear your next insult over all of the crying." she said, smugly.

He stood up straight and grinned at her.

"Oh. That was a good one, got me right in the solar plexis." he said. "Who taught you how to punch?"

"You, actually."

They laughed at one another, and he bent down to kiss her. She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck, standing on her toes while he wrapped his arms around her waist.

Derek had only intended to give her a quick smooch, but apparently Haley wanted to prolong the moment. He easily lifted her onto the countertop, and she wrapped her legs around his waist and ran her hands along his neck and back and through his hair.

His mind went fuzzy and he forgot all about what year, date or time it was, and suddenly he wasn't so tired anymore. Maybe he didn't have such bad luck, after all.

"_God,_ can't you two keep your hands off each other for five seconds?" Jake spat in disgust, emerging from the spare bedroom.

_Nope, there it was. The curse of the Quinns._

Derek and Haley sighed simultaneously, pulling away from each other mid-kiss.

"What do you want, you little twerp?" Haley hissed at him.

"I woke up. I was bound to at some point. Believe it or not, humans don't hibernate." he snapped back.

"Well, you may not hibernate, but your hair looks like a hedgehog." she said bluntly, hopping down off the counter. Derek laughed when Jake's face dropped.

"Fuck you both." Jake snarled quietly, turning and retreating to the bathroom.

They both knew he had gone to fix it in the bathroom mirror— Jake was very particular about his hair.

"I think you really upset him." Derek said, matter-of-factly. "You know we daren't speak ill of Jake's hair."

"Yep. He gets that from Dad." Haley sighed.

"Speaking of your father..." said Derek. "It's really hard to act like we're not dating when our 'hosts' are around. I can't look at you the wrong way, else he might shoot me."

"Derek, that makes no sense at all. It's stupid. He doesn't know who I am, and he doesn't know I'm his. And he doesn't know that I'm even going to be born, for that matter." she said. "Besides, I don't know what you're scared about— he shoots you in our time, anyway. All the time. On purpose. Just for the hell of it because you're my boyfriend."

He ignored the last part.

"You heard Jess last night. They've all figured it out." he whispered, nodding towards the bedroom door behind which Jess lay.

Haley sighed reluctantly.

"I know. What if... What if we've caused the butterfly effect, here? If they wanted to, they could stop us from even existing, at this point." she whispered.

"That won't happen, and we can't think like that. We'll just have to wait until we can get home, like Matt said."

They stood in silence for a minute, each considering a handful of dreadful possibilities.

Then, Haley's features broke out into a grin.

"I've got to admit... It's fun, though. Seeing them all at this age. They're so young, and naive." she giggled. "They have no idea what's in store for them."

Derek smiled too.

Haley quietened down and looked at him sadly.

"...Do you wish your dad was here?" she asked him in a hushed voice. "So you could see the 2012-version of him?"

"Nah. I don't think he would be much different, anyway." Derek chuckled. "Besides, I have a feeling we might still run into one of my parents yet."

"You mean..."

"Mum."

**a/n: A slightly shorter chapter, sorry people! I've been unwell and mentally exhausted lately, and on top of that I'm studying for exams. So I apologize if I don't get back to your messages or update as often as I used to. Not to make excuses, of course… Anyway, hope you enjoyed! And thank you for your continued support!**


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

**CONNOR**

Connor Temple was not having a good day.

He had a hangover, his fiancee had a hangover (and was therefore extremely cranky and someone to avoid), and his boss was mad at him.

And when Lester shouted, the noise felt like someone was drilling holes into his eardrums.

But the real reason he was having a bad day was that Jess was in hospital.

_Poor Jess, blah, blah, blah._ She banged her head, had a concussion and a few stitches, and slept for a million years.

He felt sorry for her, and everything; but he had a dilemma that Jess was going to help him solve, and so with her absence, he was thrown even deeper into the pool of mystery surrounding his drunken night with Abby.

She'd promised that she'd help him retrace his footsteps that day, and find the Anomaly Locking Mechanism that had gone missing on Tuesday night.

But of course, the one and only person he'd entrusted to help him with this task had been injured because Abby suggested getting drunk.

_So it was Abby's fault. _

But he wouldn't tell her that, because he was a gentleman.

And because he was extremely scared of her.

So Connor sat around the A.R.C all day, dreading the thought of an anomaly showing up and everyone pointing fingers at him for losing the device.

He'd gotten lucky when the kids came through— everyone had been too distracted by them to really care about its whereabouts.

Everyone except Becker, who Connor suspected knew it was he who had misplaced it. Naturally, though, Becker had taken the day off too, to look after Jess.

Just his luck.

He sat at the A.D.D, staring off into space and absent-mindedly drumming his fingers on the desk, his head filled with worries.

That was when Sid strolled over.

"Hiya mate." he said, leaning against the desk.

Connor snapped out of his daydream and looked up at him.

"Oh... Hi."

Connor had intended to leave his three house guests at home that day, but with Jess and Becker's absence, they were short of two people in the A.R.C.

Abby had suggested bringing Sid and Nancy to work— however, that would mean Molly was left alone.

So, only Sid tagged along in the end, just to lend a helping hand if one was needed.

"You alright?" Sid asked.

"Yeah, fine." he replied.

"You look worried."

Connor sighed.

"It's nothing. Forget about it. Nothing you can do." he shrugged, swivelling around in Jess' chair.

Sid scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"So... This is 2012, huh?" he asked.

Connor grinned.

"Yeah. Pretty cool, innit?"

"Alright. Bit old fashioned, but whatever..." Sid mumbled, looking around the room in an almost arrogant manner.

"Hey, this is state of the art technology at the moment." Connor laughed, standing up and crossing his arms.

"Well, it's boring. No offense." Sid said.

"None taken. You're just here on a quiet day— when we're out in the field, and everything's going super fast, you see how fantastic this technology really is." Connor told him.

"Well, I believe that... But like you said, it's a quiet day. I hate quiet days. I can see why you get drunk so much."

Connor's face dropped.

"Hey, we don't get drunk _that_ often." he lied.

Then he remembered that he was in a bad mood today because of an incident that had taken place when he was drunk two nights ago, and it couldn't be fixed because of an incident that happened when the entire team were drunk last night.

"Actually, you're right... I need to stop drinking." he sighed. "Being stuck in the cretaceous does that to you, I think. Makes you want to party hard."

Sid grinned.

"Oh yeah, the cretaceous. I've heard some stories about _that _period of time." he chuckled. "But I've never been stuck on the wrong end of an anomaly until now. My parents are very protective of me and Nancy that way."

Connor considered asking Sid about his brother, Lester (with the middle name of Luke, as in 'Skywalker'), who Molly had mentioned last night and was apparently dating. But he just kept his mouth shut for the time being.

"Well, it's a good job you've not been stuck in the wrong time, because apparently the after-effects cause hangovers." Connor laughed.

"That why you're in a bad mood?" Sid asked him.

Connor put his hands in his pockets.

Without realising it, both he and Sid were now stood in the exact same positions on either side of Jess' chair. People walking past might have thought one of them was a reflection of the other.

"Yeah, kind of. I... _Misplaced_ something important when I was 'inebriated' the other night, and now I don't know how to get it back." he explained.

Sid paused.

Something seemed to 'click' in his mind.

"Hold on," the boy said. "The other night... Did you go to an "Agnostic Front" concert?"

Connor looked at him, wide-eyed.

"Okay, that's scary. How did you know that?" he asked.

"Not all of the stories I've heard have taken place in the cretaceous." Sid said, not even bothering to suppress his smirk.

"Do you know what happened? On Tuesday night?" Connor asked.

If he knew what happened, or where he would end up finding the Anomaly Locking Mechanism, his problems would be long-gone.

Sid thought about his answer for a moment, looking around the area cautiously as he did so.

"I can't tell you everything I know." he said quietly.

Connor groaned and his face dropped again, the hopefulness taken away from it once more.

"...But." Sid added. Connor perked up again and stepped in closer.

Sid leaned towards the man and lowered his voice even more.

"I can guide you, if you will, to finding what you lost. Understand?" he whispered. Connor nodded. "I can't tell you everything, but I can direct you to where you are supposed to go. Because I happen to know exactly what happens to you today."

Connor was delighted and utterly intrigued.

Within the next minute, the pair had discreetly left the A.R.C and were in Connor's car, heading towards Jack Maitland's flat.

**BECKER**

The cold winter wind whipped against Hilary Becker's face as he stepped out of his truck, causing him to hug his coat tighter to him as he walked towards his block of flats.

It was dark already, even though it was only seven o'clock, and the surrounding street lamps made patches of rain glitter in their light in contrast to the surrounding darkness.

His breath turned to condensation before him and then disappeared again, the bitterness of the damp, chilly evening assaulting absolutely everything that it could.

It was January 22nd, and the weather was as miserable as ever, with no signs of spring coming any time soon.

Jess' birthday was in four days, on Monday.

If she didnt look like she was recovering or stable enough to go to work soon, there might not be a party at the A.R.C, after all.

But he didn't really care about the party at this point. All he wanted was for Jess to get better.

The poor girl had smacked her head wide open, and the first thing she did when she properly came back around was apologise to him for saying stupid things when she was drunk. And she didn't even have her own bed to sleep in at the moment.

He sighed as he ascended the stairs towards his flat on the third floor. In his hand he carried a paper bag from the chemist, containing Jess' painkillers, and an Asda bag with maltesers, lucozade, Cadbury's milk chocolate and the January edition of "Hello " magazine inside.

He unlocked the front door and stepped inside his familiar home, glad to be out of the cold and back inside his flat.

"You're ba-ack," Haley sang cheerfully from the kitchen. "How was your trip?"

Haley and Derek had stopped speaking mid-conversation when he opened the door, but he was too tired to really care about what they'd been saying.

He gave Haley a funny look.

"Err... Good? I just went to get the painkillers and chocolate and stuff. Why?" he asked.

"Nothing, it's just that when you get home we always ask you—" Haley began, but Derek nudged her and she fell silent. "It was a stupid question." she muttered.

"Everything been okay here?" he asked them.

"Yep. Fine. Jake woke up. Jess is still sleeping, I think." Derek said as Becker brought the bag over to the kitchen counter.

Becker eyed Derek as he pulled the contents of the bag out and set them onto the counter.

He seemed like a nice boy, from what Becker had gathered; polite, well-mannered, respectful... He clearly had a sense of humour, but wasn't an idiot- he was obviously intelligent.

Not that Becker cared, of course. Why should he?

He was just someone lost in the time.

Someone that walked through an anomaly yesterday morning.

Someone that looked an awful lot like Danny Quinn, and behaved an awful lot like Danny Quinn.

The similarity was scary.

Becker got a glass of water and read the label on the little bottle of pills that the doctor had prescribed for Jess last night.

"Good... Okay. Well, I'm going to go and wake Jess up, give her these." he said. He picked up the chocolates and magazine in one hand, pills and glass in the other, and went to his bedroom.

It had only been an hour since he'd spoken to Jess, so she hadn't fallen too deeply asleep in that time. She had drifted off, however, and it took her a moment to wake up when he gently shook her shoulder.

"Huh? Oh, hi Becker." she said quietly , smiling sleepily when she saw him, her eyes barely open.

"Hey. How are you?"

"Ugh.. My head hurts..." she grumbled, sitting up slightly.

She yawned, and tucked her messy hair behind one ear.

"Well, I've brought you your painkillers. Here..." he said, handing her the pills and the glass of water.

She took them gratefully, and then laughed.

"You're not going to give me an overdose, like in 'Misery', are you?" she giggled.

Becker smiled at her. She was already making jokes. Weird jokes, but nonetheless, jokes.

"Well, I did plan on doing that," he said matter-of-factly. "But then I decided to get you a magazine and some chocolate instead."

He presented her with the 'Hello' magazine and the Cadbury's, and her face lit up immediately.

"Oh! Thank you, Becker!" she said, leaning forward and hugging him tightly.

"You're welcome. Now, lie back down. I don't want you getting up— you need to rest." he instructed, rearranging the pillows behind her.

She sat back and eagerly began looking through her magazine while he switched on lamps and his TV, placing the remote on the bedside table.

"Oh, poor Demi. I hope Bruce kicks Ashton's ass, don't you?" she said.

Clearly that bump on the head hadn't effected Jess' obsession with celebrity gossip.

"I certainly hope he does." Becker replied, tidying up his room a little and not realising that the only reason any objects were out of place was because Jake had moved them.

He listened contently while Jess went on, enjoying hearing her sounding lively and happy and well.

"And I wish everyone would just leave Brangelina alone... Oh, 'True Blood' is starting again soon! I can't wait for Season 5 to begin!" she squealed. "And there's an article in here about whether or not Jennifer Lopez will remarry. She should, I want to be happy... And oh, ha— Fashion Face-off: Diana Aggron vs Lea Michelle. Oh, I don't like Lea Michelle, she annoys me."

Becker didn't actually know who or what Jess was talking about right now, but he smiled at her enthusiasm.

"Okay, well. If you need anything, just tell me. I'm going to make you some soup." he said.

"Oh, thank you. You're so sweet, but you really don't have to." she said, looking up from her magazine and smiling at him in appreciation.

"No, no, really, it's fine. My pleasure. You just stay here, and don't crack your forehead open while I'm out of the room." he said.

She beamed at him and giggled tiredly.

"Okay. Thank you, Hil'."

"You're welc— hold on, what did you just call me?"

Jess had just called him something other than 'Becker'. Was it because of the head injury, she was acting a bit loopy, or something?

She looked worried, like she might have offended him.

"...Hil?" she said, timidly. "Sorry, it was an accident, Becker. I know you don't like your name."

"No, no, my family call me Hil, actually. I, err... like it." he said.

He was surprised at himself, and at her, but even more surprised at the fact that it had sounded nice when she called him that.

She smiled meekly at him, and he back at her assuringly, before leaving the room again.

"Bed."

"What?"

"Bed, now."

And so went the conversation that erupted between he and Haley when he set foot in the kitchen.

She was pointing towards the spare bedroom door, one hand on her hip, while Derek and Jake watched his reaction smugly from behind her.

"No, I'm going to make Jess some soup." Becker said.

"_I_ will make her the soup, and _we _will keep her company. _You_ need to sleep, or else you're going to be no help to anyone." Haley told him.

He was flabbergasted. This girl was telling him what to do, bossing him around all of a sudden, when he had only met her yesterday morning.

"What makes you think I'm going to listen to you?" he said.

"Because, Captain," she said, taking a step towards him. "You are tired. You have not slept since the early hours of yesterday morning, and you've been working hard and running around looking after everyone. It's been a hectic couple of days, and all you want to do is snuggle up in your bed covers and drift off to sleep. Understood?"

Becker frowned.

"I'm a soldier. I do not 'snuggle up in bed covers'."

Haley raised her eyebrows at him. He sighed.

"Fine. I will go and get some sleep. But look after Jess, you hear me? And stay out of trouble. Jake, don't eat my chocolate, it's not for you."

**CONNOR**

"Okay, we are in Jack's flat..." Connor mumbled, stepping over a pile of rubbish as he opened the front door.

The door was unlocked, and Jack didn't seem to be home. Connor wondered of he'd even returned home since he and Abby last saw him.

"This place is a mess!" Sid complained, looking disgustedly at a mouldy sandwich that had been left on a counter. "Where the hell is Jack?"

"I don't know. When me and Abby woke up here, she found a note that said he'd gone to apologise to some people." Connor explained.

"Why?" Sid asked. "Apologise for what?"

Connor made his way through heaps of clutter and looked out of the window. The JCB digger that had stood there yesterday morning had disappeared.

"We... Stole a digger." Connor admitted.

Sid looked surprised at first, but then grinned.

"Wicked." he laughed. "Funny, how that wasn't mentioned when I heard the story."

"Yeah, well, I'm starting to think that the digger belonged London's equivalent of the Corleone family, because it looks like Jack Maitland had been absent for a couple of days." Connor muttered.

"We should check his bed for a horse's head." Sid laughed. Connor laughed, too.

"Okay, so... I remember being told that the first place you went was Jack's flat. That didn't work out, as proven. Then..." Sid listed the order of events off of his fingers.

Today was predetermined, apparently— Connor wondered what Sid knew that he didn't, and why this date in particular was so special.

After all, Sid hadn't even been born yet; it had to be significant if he'd heard stories about whatever was going to happen.

The thought of it scared him slightly, but Sid seemed excited by the events he knew were going to occur, so he just decided to trust the teenager.

"Oh, I know where you go!" Sid said, suddenly remembering.

"Where?" Connor asked.

"Ugh, I can't tell you directly. So... Just, just go through the things you found in your jeans on Wednesday morning." he instructed.

Connor scratched his head.

"I don't have those things with me, obviously, but I can remember them... Let's see: I had my phone, someone else's phone, half a Mars Bar, a note that said 'Matt-FLOWERS', an unopened toothpaste tube, a—"

"Stop!" Sid yelled interrupting his list. "There! The toothpaste tube."

Connor was confused.

"What about it?"

"What can you remember about that toothpaste tube?" he asked.

"Nothing, really. It was mint, I think… It was weird, though, because the writing on it was in another language. Japanese, or something." Connor replied.

Sid stepped over a basket of laundry, and stood close to Connor, nodding his head slowly in a scary sort of manner.

"Yes. And who is the only weird person you know that would spend basically all of his money buying large amounts of Japanese toothpaste and having them shipped across to England?" he asked Connor, whose mind drew a blank at the question.

"I'll give you a clue," Sid continued. "With it being 2012, this person has become very paranoid about the end of the world. If it's possible, they've become even stranger than they were originally."

Connor had an idea, but it was a shot in the dark.

"Duncan?" he asked.

To his surprise, Sid nodded.

"Duncan."

Connor and Sid hopped back into the car, making sure they left all of Jack's crap just the way they had found it.

Connor decided, because Sid was being kind and helping him, not to bring up the fact that the trip to Jack's place had been an entire waste of time.

The pair soon arrived at the shabby little house in the bad neighbourhood that Duncan called his home, and were greeted by the sounds of sirens wailing, a vicious-sounding dog barking violently nearby, and shouting and screaming echoing onto the street from somewhere around the corner.

"Always a lovely place to visit..." Sid mumbled sarcastically under his breath as he and Connor stepped inside Duncan's dirty little building.

They walked down the darkened corridors until they reached the set of security cameras that were mounted on the wall at one end.

The young men stared up at them, knowing they were being watched by someone on the other side of the worn door before them.

"Duncan," Connor said to the camera. "Are you home?"

They stood waiting, anxiously listening to any noises that could possibly be heard from inside the sad excuse for a house.

Sure enough, there were a few shuffling sounds, the muffled clanging of several locks being unlatched, and the door creaked open.

Duncan stood in the gap, staring at them with beady, spectacle-clad eyes.

"Hello, Connor." he said quietly,

"Hiya, mate, how are you doing?" Connor asked him politely.

"Good." he replied. He paused for a minute, and then said, "Come in."

Connor stepped inside Duncan's house, but Duncan held a hand out to Sid to stop him from proceeding further.

"Who's this?" he asked Connor, sounding like some sort of bouncer.

Connor spun around, and saw Sid's brown, puppy-dog eyes pleading for help.

Duncan had let his hygiene standards drop a lot over the past couple of years, and wasn't the nicest smelling person; Connor knew that Sid's nostrils were now burning alive with the sweet-scented odour of Duncan.

"Err, I— I'll tell you when you let him inside. Really, you can trust him, Duncan. He's good." Connor said.

Duncan glared at Sid, and stepped aside, allowing him into the house.

Sid scurried over to Connor's side, where he stood nervously fidgeting with the loose threads on his fingerless gloves.

"Thanks, mate." Connor said. Duncan looked at him expectantly. "Err, Duncan... I have something to tell you."

Sid snapped his head up to look at Connor, wondering what he was going to say. Connor glanced at him quickly, but then looked back at Duncan and sighed.

"This is my seventeen year old son. His name is Sid." Connor announced.

Sid opened his mouth in awe, while Duncan blinked in shock.

"Oh. I thought he was your brother, or something." he said.

_That might've been easier to say,_ Connor thought.

"Err, no. I fathered him when I was seventeen myself. I only recently found out about him, and Abby does not know of his existence yet. So you must keep him an absolute secret, understand? He is _never _to be mentioned outside of these walls. I'm trusting you, Duncan." Connor said, as seriously as possible, causing Duncan to nod furiously.

Sid breathed a sigh of relief— Connor was joking, just to make Duncan trust him. He wasn't serious.

Nancy _wasn't _going to murder him.

"Right. Your secret's safe with me." Duncan breathed. "Sid... Your dad is a good man. Although, I never really pegged him as someone who'd have a secret accidental love child."

Sid mumbled something incomprehensible, and Duncan began scuttling around, moving various items around on his cluttered desk.

"How can I help you Connor?" he asked after a minute.

"Right. Secret sons aside, I'm here to ask for you a few questions. Firstly— did I show up here a few days ago, drunk?"

Duncan looked at him, eyes narrowed.

"Yes. You did. You were completely hammered, and just a general nuisance. So I sent you home."

"Did I take a bottle of toothpaste from you, by any chance?" Connor asked.

"Yes. I don't know why, but you kept asking for some. I think you were high, to be honest." Duncan spat.

"High? No, I don't do that, mate." Connor scoffed.

"Well, you seemed like you had the munchies, anyhow." Duncan muttered. "You had just come here from the Red Lion pub down the road. Drove a massive fucking digger, you did. You don't remember?"

"No, sorry. I'm sorry for being a nuisance, but I'm sure the drunk state of me just wanted to stop by and see an old friend." Connor laughed.

Duncan smiled lopsidedly, and shrugged.

"It's okay."

"Well, I better be going. To the Red Lion." Connor said, heading towards the door. "Come along, Sid."

Sid obliged, and followed Connor, who opened the door once more. Duncan watched them leave.

"Come round any time, Connor. And remember tell me if there's any—" he paused and looked suspiciously at Sid. "—Alerts. You know?"

"Yeah, I know. Thanks mate, see you later."

Once they were in the car, Connor shuddered.

"Mental bastard."

They laughed together, and headed off towards the Red Lion.


	10. Chapter 10

A FEW VISITORS

CHAPTER 10

**HALEY**

"He-llo," Haley sang cheerily, stepping through Jess' bedroom door, carrying a tray of soup and crackers.

Jess looked up from her 'Hello' magazine and smiled at the teenager, who made her way over to the bed.

"Hi Haley..." she said.

"I brought you your soup. Becker's been instructed to go to bed, and even though he didn't want to, he's had to do as I told him. Sorry."

"Oh, it's no problem. He's exhausted, I'm sure. Poor bloke..." she laughed. Haley set the tray down on Jess' legs.

"It's carrot and coriander. Your favourite." she said, clearly pleased with the soup she'd prepared.

Jess looked up at Haley with a raised eyebrow.

"How do you know it's my favourite?" Jess asked.

Haley's face dropped. She began to stammer.

"Well—I... I think... You... That... You—"

"Becker told us you'd like it, so she assumed it was one of your favourites, Miss Parker." Derek said, appearing in the doorway.

"Right. Of course." Jess laughed, nervously. Inside she was giggling.

"So..." Haley said, plopping herself down on the bed next to Jess' feet. "Since Sleeping Beauty is catching up on the hours of sleep he missed... I'm going to be keeping you company."

Haley smiled brightly at Jess, who smiled back in turn.

"Well that sounds like fun." Jess said. She looked over at Derek. "Will you be joining us, Derek?"

"No, ladies, I've got a circa-2012 Liverpool-Chelsea match that I'd like to watch. If Jake's 'Keeping up with the Karsashians" marathon ever finishes..." he said, turning his attention to the living room.

The faint sound of bickering between the boys could be heard, and Haley shook her head.

"How are you feeling?" she asked Jess.

"Good, good. I've had some painkillers, so the throbbing has died down." she mumbled.

Haley sighed and got off the bed, moving over to the window and peering into the dark, rainy world outside.

"What date is it?" she asked, absent-mindedly.

Jess swallowed a spoonful of soup, and then realised that the girl was in a completely different era than she was used to. Of course she had no idea what the date was.

"Err... January 22nd. Thursday." she said, popping a cracker into her mouth.

Haley snapped her head around to look at Jess.

"January 22nd?"

"Yes."

"...2012?"

"Yes."

"So, it's four days until your… 22nd birthday?"

"Oh, I'd completely forgotten, yes."

Haley frowned.

She'd known all along that something was wrong, and know she'd figured it out. Something about the dates... They didn't match up in her head.

"Are you sure?" she asked Jess, who snorted.

"Yes, I'm absolutely sure. It's the 22nd of January, 2012, four days before my 22nd birthday. Problem?"

"No, no, not at all... I'll be right back, I'm just going to talk to Jake about something."

Haley smiled at Jess, who looked very confused, and dashed out of the room, making sure to quietly shut the door behind her.

Derek was falling asleep on the sofa, and Jake's eyes were glued to the TV as his episode of "Keeping up with the Kardashians" played quietly.

"Jake!" she whispered. He looked up at her.

"What?"

"It's the 22nd of January, 2012, four days before Mum's 22nd birthday!" she whispered, looking flustered and stressed.

Jake stared at her, clearly not understanding what she was hinting at.

"So?"

"So!" Haley snapped back, inching closer to him. "Something's wrong!"

Derek opened his eyes, and frowned. What could be 'wrong'?

"Calm down, Haley, you're going to have a panic attack," he said, sitting up tiredly, cockney accent still heard strongly when he whispered.

She made hand gestures frantically, completely exasperated with their lack of knowledge.

"Mum and Dad are supposed to be dating already!" she hissed.

Derek and Jake shared a look.

"Are you sure?" Jake asked her.

"Positive! Remember, the stories! About how he threw the party for her, and there were all those complications, and then it turned out so romantic and sweet? Mum talks about it all the time! And she realised that she had more than just a crush on him that night— she realised she was in love." Haley whispered, her voice softening slightly.

Jake pulled a face in disgust, and even Derek looked incredulous.

"I think that was her 23rd." Jake muttered.

"No! No, no, no! It was this year, I'm telling you! It's the most amazing story, Mum gushes about it all the time! She used to tell me and Vicky it over and over when we were little." she whispered.

"It can't have been this year, Hale'. They're not even dating, not even close. She's all fangirly over him, and he's completely oblivious. They're stuck in the friend-slash-colleague-zone, still. It's not happening." Derek said quietly.

Haley looked worried, and disheartened.

Her big, blue eyes looked gloomily at the ground, and her eyebrows knit into a tight frown.

She wasn't liking this, not at all. She was sure of the facts, and certain that something was wrong.

Derek saw her sad expression and sighed. He stood, and took her by the shoulders.

"Haley. Don't worry, it's just the wrong year. It's not like they're not going to get together, things don't work that way. We of all people know that," he whispered. "And besides- I was at that birthday party, the one you were talking about— and I'm not even in the picture yet."

She sighed again.

"Okay. I guess your right."

"Sure, listen to him, not me..." Jake said scathingly from the couch.

Haley looked at him, her eyes now cold and filled with anger.

"Oi, fuck-face. I'm going back in there to keep Jessica Parker company. Hilary Becker is asleep in the next room. My boyfriend is going to go to sleep on the couch next to you. If you disturb a single one of us, I will light a cigarette and then put it out on your face. Got it?"

He ignored her, and she gave Derek a kiss, before heading back to Jess' room.

"Where did you go?" Jess asked her innocently.

She had finished her soup, and was now surfing through television channels.

"Oh, just to ask my darling brother a few questions. Did you enjoy your soup?" Haley asked, sweetly.

"It was lovely, thank you."

Haley cleared her tray away into the kitchen and brought her a glass of lucozade, before settling down on the bed next to Jess.

"What are you watching?" she asked.

"The Vampire Diaries." Jess sighed. "After this, Grey's Anatomy is on, and then Jersey Shore."

"Well, I can't tell you too much about the future," Haley said in a hushed voice. "...But let's just say that Ian Somerhalder only improves with age."

Jess giggled.

"You like him?"

"No, but my sister does. She's boy-crazy. She goes out on a date with a different boy at least once a week." Haley groaned.

"Really? Is she pretty?" Jess asked.

"Gorgeous. And ridiculously popular, too. She's always gossiping, she has loads of friends, she goes out shopping and wears all different makeup and jewellery, boys are always hanging all over her... Drives Dad up the wall."

Jess smiled to herself.

"Is your dad protective of you?" she asked.

"Ugh, like you wouldn't believe. It drives me insane. He gets so defensive, and opinionated... Occasionally violent. And if he sees us even kiss anyone, he doesn't look at us the same for about a month."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"That must be hard for you and Derek." Jess said.

Haley looked over at her.

"How did you know I was seeing Derek?"

"I'm not stupid." Jess laughed. "I've seen the way you look at each other, the way you act around each other. It's cute."

"Thanks, but my Dad doesn't seem to think so. Although, he likes Derek better than whatever emo or punk or jock or ASBO or hippie-environmentalist that Victoria drags in this week." Haley laughed.

Jess snorted.

"I cant imagine being one of those girls. I've only had one boyfriend before." she mumbled.

"Really?"

"Yes. It sounds silly, but i never really had the chance to be anyone's long-term girlfriend, or date a whole bunch of guys. I had school, and then college, and then I started work at the A.R.C. Most of my time was spent studying, developing the academic side of my life. Although, in college, I dated this boy from Australia for about six months. He was studying to become a software engineer. He kept having to go back to Canberra to see his family; we grew apart and it didn't last."

Haley fell silent. She didn't know this about Jess.

"Oh... Well, I've only ever dated Derek before. I'm four years younger than you, and I don't plan on breaking up with him anytime soon... So, I guess you could say we have that in common." she said, offering Jess a smile.

Jess looked at her, their matching sets of blue eyes making contact, and beamed.

"We do have that in common, don't we?"

They laughed, and then turned their separate attentions back to the TV. Then, Jess' curiosity got the better of her.

She looked at Haley out of the corner of her eye.

"Have you and Derek... _You know_...?"

Haley looked confused for a moment, and then realised what Jess was asking, and turned very red.

"I'm not going to tell you that!" she whispered. Jess smirked.

"Why not? Who am I going to tell?" she laughed.

Haley grimaced.

"My Mum asks me the same fucking question, all the time. But then I just remind her of that time when I was ten years old." she said, suddenly looking smug.

Jess' face dropped.

"What time?" she asked, wondering what Haley could possibly be talking about.

"Well, I was ten, Jake was eight, and we used to share a room... One night, he woke up crying because he'd had a bad dream. I was cranky, and I hit him and told him to shut up. So he got even more upset and ran into Mum and Dad's bedroom. I followed." Haley told Jess. "... And we walked in on Mum and Dad having sex."

Jess fell deathly silent, and decided not to ask Haley any more questions.

For some reason, she decided not to share that particular piece of information with Becker.

**CONNOR**

Connor parked in the crowded car-park outside of the Red Lion pub, and he and Sid could immediately hear the noises of people talking and getting drunk and doing other pub-things as soon as they stepped foot on the gravel floor.

"Place looks busy." Connor said.

"Yeah. Surprising, for such a shitty area." Sid mumbled in return.

They walked in through the front doors, and Connor was soon finding the place vaguely familiar.

It looked like it hadn't been redecorated since the 1970s, with tacky carpets and leather booths, an assortment of wooden tables and chairs, a dartboard and snooker table, and a heavy smell of smoke.

It was packed, and Sid was struggling to remain close to Connor as they made their way through the crowd.

A TV hung on the wall, showing tonight's football match on Sky Sports.

"Who's playing?" Sid asked Connor, gesturing to the match,

"Liverpool and Chelsea." Connor said. "Who do you support, Sid?"

"I don't know much about football, to be honest, and Derek makes fun of me for it... But I'd have to say Liverpool. Derek supports Liverpool." Sid admitted.

"Well, if you support Liverpool, I support Liverpool." Connor laughed. He didn't know anything about football, either.

It was all video games and dinosaurs for Connor Temple.

They went and stood at the bar, and Connor decided to get himself a beer.

"Sid, I know your seventeen, but do your parents let you drink?" Connor asked.

Sid blinked.

"... Yes. Yes they do."

"Okay, great." Connor smiled at him, and waited for the bartender to come over to them.

While Connor was distracted with absorbing the atmosphere of the Red Lion, Sid leaned on the edge of the bar to get a look at the bartender.

He knew the bartender. He knew exactly who this bartender was.

He knew she was going to play a vital role in their evening.

And he knew that she would be an important part of everyone's, including Connor's, life from that night on.

"Hi, what can I get you?" a woman's voice asked Connor from behind.

He turned around to see the bartender. She was certainly not the fat, sweaty, middle-aged man he'd been expecting to see working in a place like this.

She was young, and beautiful, but looked very tired, which seemed to age her.

Her dark, mahogany-coloured hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and her emerald green eyes glimmered even in the darkness of the pub.

Her porcelain skin stood out against her black bartender's clothing, and Connor saw that her name-tag read—

"Connor?" she asked him. He looked up at her. "Connor Temple, you're back!"

He glanced, puzzled, at Sid, who was grinning widely.

"Err, yeah—" Connor began to say.

"I haven't seen you since Tuesday night!" she laughed, smiling at him.

Connor quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out something that had been bugging him for the last couple of days.

It was half a beer mat, with the phone number of a woman named "Natasha" scribbled onto the front.

That was the name on her name tag. Natasha.

"Natasha!" he yelped, a little too loudly. She smiled.

"Yes, that's me!" she giggled. "How is everyone?"

Connor sighed. Where to begin?

"Err, Natasha, here's the thing... I don't remember anything from Tuesday night, I was so pissed!" he explained over the noise of the crowd.

She rolled her eyes.

"I know, that's why I gave you my number on a beer mat and prayed you wouldn't lose it." she called back to him.

Everyone around them suddenly roared, as a goal was scored on the telly.

"Can we talk outside?" he asked her.

"Yeah, hold on." she said, and disappeared from view.

She found Connor and Sid and lead them out of the pub's back door, where they stood in the shelter of the pub's roof to avoid getting soaked by January rain.

Once they were out there, she hugged Connor and shook Sid's hand.

"How's Abby?" she asked them.

"Err, good, good. Listen, I was hoping you'd help me figure out what happened the other night. I'm in a spot of trouble, see..." Connor told her.

She nodded.

"Right. You leant the Anomaly Locking Mechanism to Jack's mate, Dave."

Connor froze.

"...You know about the Anomaly Locking Mechanism?" he asked her quietly.

She frowned.

"You really can't remember me, can you?"

**JESS**

Jess was having most fun she'd had in a while.

After getting over the trauma of finding out that Haley and Jake had walked in on their parents during a very private, very naked moment, things started to pick up a bit.

Haley and she had been giggling like schoolgirls, and then Derek woke up and decided to join them. Needless to say, he didn't giggle, but he did provide them with a source of entertainment.

"I know some secrets about your teammates." he'd told Jess.

She was immediately interested.

"Tell me them, please!" she whispered.

"Well... I know that when Becker was little, his sisters used to dress him up like a girl." he told her.

Jess grinned.

"Really?"

"Yes. I've seen the photographs. Makeup, jewellery, dresses... Apparently, they'd parade him around town like that up until he was about four, and had to start school." Derek said. "The odd thing is, they still called him Hilary."

Haley nodded, and snorted in amusement.

Jess giggled, but then covered up her laughter, feeling slightly guilty. Becker had been looking after her— she didn't want to be laughing about him behind his back when he was asleep.

Still, it was funny as hell.

"What about... Connor?" she asked.

"Connor slept with a baby blanket over his eyes until he was nineteen."

Jess guffawed. Haley chortled, and nodded sadly.

"Abby?" Jess asked.

"Hmmm..." Derek thought. Then he snapped his fingers. "Ah, this one is good. It's not happened yet for you, but one Christmas, Abby got really drunk and snogged Lester under the mistletoe. But then she decided she liked the kiss, and followed him round all night glomping him at random moments."

Jess' jaw dropped.

"Oh. My. _God!_" she burst out laughing.

"I know." Haley said. "He was disturbed. Never really looked at her the same after that."

Jess finished laughing, and then asked one more question.

"Derek... Do you know any secrets about Lester?"

Derek grinned evilly.

"Oh, Jess... I know most secrets about Lester. I know more about James Lester than anyone else on the team." he whispered.

Jess was hooked.

"Go on."

Derek gave Haley a glance, before starting to reveal the secrets of one James Lester, angry boss and headstrong businessman extraordinaire.

"He talks to himself all the time. He has arguments in the mirror with his reflection. Sometimes he pretends he's on a talk show being interviewed, discussing a movie he just saw, or a meeting he just had with someone famous. He practices conversations and voicemails he will leave later. And he sings Adele. All. The. Time."

Jess split her sides laughing. She gasped for breath, and the hilarity of what she'd just heard hurt her head and made her temple throb painfully.

But she didn't care, because Lester was an Adele fan.

"There's more." Derek said. "He listens to the themes from _'Harry Potter'_ and _'Mission Impossible'_ on his drive to work in the morning. Probably to make his life seem more interesting, like a movie."

Jess was crying.

"When your fluffy pink socks went missing, Jess? He took them. He's kept them for years, because he's too embarrassed to buy a pair for himself at the shops. He poses in front of the mirror with them."

Jess would have been satisfied with those secrets, but Derek went on.

"He's afraid of moths— he flaps and panics like a little girl when one comes near him." Derek continued. "And he writes really awful love poems. Has done since he was about ten. Oh— when he was a teenager, he noticed that his crap was green. He had to go for a really invasive examination, and it turned out it was just because he drank too much lime pop. He thought he was an alien, or something."

Jess clutched her head in agony, but couldn't stop laughing. She could hardly breath.

"And his second relationship was with a boy. Just saying." Derek added.

Jess wiped the tears away from her face.

"Oh my god!" she gasped between giggles.

"I know. But you can never tell anyone these things. I'm only telling you because you're unwell, and because I happen to know that in the future, everyone else on the team reads your diary and makes fun of you." Derek said.

Jess stopped laughing.

_Bastards._

"How do you know all those things about Lester, anyway?" she asked.

"He's my uncle." Derek said.

Jess frowned.

"What?" she snapped in confusion.

"He's my uncle. Old Uncle James." Derek laughed.

Jess thought he was joking, but he said it genuinely, and Haley looked serious.

"But I thought... I thought you were Dan—"

She was cut off mid sentence when the phone rang. Derek got up and left the room, leaving Haley to sit awkwardly in silence with Jess.

He reappeared in the doorway a second later, holding the phone out to Haley.

"It's Nancy," he said.

Haley took the phone off him.

"Hello? Hi, Nancy... No, he's not here... He isn't either... Why? ...I know! And I told them, but they didn't believe me! I was right? Oh my god, do you know what that means? ..._I know!_"

Jess stared confusedly at the teenager on the phone, who had stood up and was almost jumping up and down in excitement.

Derek looked unwary about something.

"Right, I'll be right over." Haley finished.

She hung up the phone, and looked at Jess.

"Jess, I have to take Derek to your flat." she said.

"What? Why?" she asked.

"I can't tell you, but it's really important. We need to see Nancy right away. I'll take Becker's car, I'm sure he won't mind..." Haley said, pacing up and down frantically as she spoke.

"Jake will keep you company, and just call us if you need anything." she said quickly, before hugging Jess and pulling Derek out of the room.

"I'll explain on the way!" she whispered when Derek began to protest, and soon they had vanished from sight, having left the flat and Jess and Jake alone.

Jake wondered into Jess' bedroom.

"What the fuck was that all about?" Jess asked, almost angrily.

Jake shrugged, and grinned at her use of swear words. He decided to join in.

"I have no _fucking _idea."


	11. Chapter 11

A FEW VISITORS

CHAPTER 11

**CONNOR**

"I can't believe this!" Connor said loudly as he and Sid stepped into Natasha's flat.

The woman named Natasha; once a name on a ripped beer mat, now the missing link in an intricate puzzle.

_The puzzle of Connor's wonderfully fucked-up life._

She closed the door behind he and Sid, and took off her jacket, chucking her car keys into a bowl on a coffee table by the door.

"You are James Lester's sister!" Connor laughed. "I can't believe I didn't know about this before!"

"Well, I haven't spoken to James in three years. Family fall out... You know how it goes." she said.

Her home, a flat located in a lovely area not too far from Duncan's house, was tiny and poorly furnished.

Her furniture was tatty, her television old, and Connor spotted a couple of pots and pans collecting rainwater in various places around the house, droplets of it leaking through the roof.

He was surprised that someone as well-off as James Lester would let his little sister live in such poorly circumstances.

"Right..." Connor said. "But I can't believe you know about anomalies and everything! And I _definitely_ can not believe that Lester broke the official secrecy act and told you about his job."

She snorted and shook her head.

"James didn't tell me about his job, he's far too... Straight-laced and untrusting to confide something like that in his screw-up of a sister."

Connor frowned, for two reasons.

Firstly, it sounded like the Lesters' relationship was completely fucked up. It was saddening.

Secondly— if James hadn't told her about the A.R.C, and the anomalies, then who had?

"Well, who told you all the stuff you know, then?" he asked.

She turned to face him, and sighed. She seemed to contemplating something in her mind.

"Natasha?" a woman's voice called from nearby.

Connor looked to his right, and saw a lady's head pop up over the edge of a couch in the small lounge area.

"Hi, Kaitlyn." Natasha sighed.

"I fell asleep on the couch, sorry." the woman laughed sleepily, getting up from the sofa. "I didn't hear you come in. The little guy's asleep in his bedroom."

'Kaitlyn' was a young, redheaded girl, whose hair was a mess from where she'd fallen asleep on the couch cushions. She was tall and slim, and Connor spotted Sid ogling her as she stood up.

He slapped Sid on the arm, and the boy winced.

"Thanks, Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn, this is my friend Connor and... His friend Sid." Natasha explained, moving over to the small kitchen and filling the kettle with water.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Natasha's babysitter." she said, grabbing her handbag and coat and shaking their hands. "Well, I better go. I've got a date with some guy named Jack. Later," she cheered, promptly leaving the flat.

"Cute babysitter." Sid said once she'd gone.

"You have kids?" Connor asked, ignoring the teen.

"Yes, I have a two year old son. He's in there." she said, pointing to his bedroom door. The front of the door was covered in pinned-up paintings, obviously done by the small child. "Would you like a brew?"

"Yes, please. Two sugars." Sid said.

"Same." added Connor.

They watched Natasha scurry around the flat, tidying away various objects that were out of place.

"You still haven't answered my question." Connor said. "Who told you the stuff about the A.R.C, if not Lester?"

She stopped what she was doing and paused, folding her arms and staring at Connor.

"The reason I gave you my number on Tuesday was because I heard you and Abby talking about your teammates when you were drunk. You mentioned Jess, Matt and Emily... None of whom I've ever heard of before." she explained. "But you also mentioned Becker, whose name I _have_ heard before. And you mentioned Sarah and Jenny, and Nick Cutter."

Connor blinked.

"I have heard of them. And I'd also heard of you, and Abby, and I realised who you were. I realised that you worked for my brother... And that you also worked with an old flame of mine. The same person who told me about the A.R.C, and anomalies, and all of those people."

"...Who?" Connor asked.

She was about to tell him, when the door with the painted pictures on the front opened a crack. It creaked and caught the attention of all three people int the room.

"Mummy?" a little boy in the doorway asked, wrapping his chubby little fingers around the edge of the door.

Connor couldn't see too much of the toddler, as he was half hidden behind the door; but he could make out a pair of big, blue eyes and a distinct tuft of red hair.

"Hiya, sweetheart!" Natasha said softly, moving over to the door and opening it further to give her son a hug.

The little boy wrapped his arms around his mother's neck, but didn't take his eyes off of Sid and Connor, who he was eyeing suspiciously.

Connor smiled at the boy.

"Hiya, mate." he said.

The toddler whispered something into Natasha's ear, and she stood and picked him up.

"That is Connor, and that is Sid. They're mummy's friends." she said.

He looked at them, and then buried his face in her neck from shyness.

"Oh, he's shy. And tired." Natasha said. "How about we get you back to bed, sweetheart?"

She took him back into his room, and after a few minutes, came back out to Connor and Sid.

Sid was grinning like a maniac.

"What? Why are you smiling like that?" Connor whispered to him.

He beamed at Natasha.

"Natasha," he nearly giggled. "What's your son's name?"

Connor frowned, and looked at her expectantly.

She seemed a little freaked out by Sid's excitement, but told them anyway.

"His name is Derek."

**DEREK**

"Haley, why are you taking me to Jess' flat?" Derek hissed.

Haley was recklessly driving Becker's car down rain-soaked streets, probably breaking the speed limit and several other laws.

"And why have you committed grand theft auto?" he snapped.

She scoffed.

"Becker won't mind me taking his car."

"We'll see about that." he mumbled, gripping onto the edge of his seat as she swerved around a corner. "Now, you said you'd explain on the way why we're going, and I'm still clueless, so would you care to fill me in?"

She sighed, and then went on a rant at one-hundred miles an hour.

"Okay, well. Nancy said that Abby didn't come home from work with Connor— he and Sid disappeared from the A.R.C today. Nancy agrees with me about the date, and says that on this date— seventeen years ago, in our time— Connor and a 'friend' of his went looking for the Anomaly Locking Mechanism, which had gotten lost a couple of nights beforehand. On his search, he bumped into a Miss Natasha Lester."

Derek looked over at her.

"What? Mum?"

"Yes! You said so yourself, you had a feeling we'd run into her!" Haley said, smiling widely. "And if Connor and Sid have indeed found Natasha today, and the dates in the stories were correct, then that means that you have already been born!"

He ran a hand through his hair.

"Wow." he sighed.

"I know!"

"If you're right, then that means—"

"—That means that—"

"—Of course."

When they reached Jess' flat, they found Nancy waiting for them, pacing up and down in the kitchen anxiously.

Molly was sat on the couch watching 'Legend of Korra' and drinking a banana smoothie, and Abby was nowhere in sight.

Derek, Haley and Nancy went to talk in the kitchen, out of Molly's earshot. She had a big mouth, and therefore really didn't need to hear what they were talking about.

"So, you think that Connor and Sid have found... _Me, _today?" Derek asked her quietly.

Nancy nodded.

She was wearing one of Abby's off-the-shoulder tops and a pair of ripped jeans; her blonde and purple locks were clipped back behind her head, her hair tousled and messy-looking as usual.

Due to the fact that she didn't have any sort of makeup with her, she wasn't wearing several layers of black eyeliner, eyeshadow and mascara— this was irregular for the girl, and she hated the fact that it made her seem less intimidating.

"Yep. Dad told me the story of when everyone first found out about you. And it fits perfectly into today. And the year, and timing? Jess' birthday? It's no coincidence." she said.

"So does that mean that Connor and Abby went to the Agnostic Front concert just recently?" Haley asked. Nancy nodded.

They grinned at each other.

"Wait, what? What's 'Agnostic Front'?" Derek asked, suddenly feeling left out.

Nancy and Haley rolled their eyes simultaneously.

Everyone knew that Nancy and Sid were the twins, and twins were twins. And everyone knew that Derek and Haley were close, having been through a lot together.

But Nancy and Haley had grown up together, and had been best friends their entire lives.

What started with games of dress-up and hide-and-seek in the A.R.C had progressed into the two being the closest of friends; it only took one shared look or word between the girls, and they knew what the other was thinking.

It was at moments like these when Derek felt completely clueless, and slightly pissed off.

"The night of the infamous 'Agnostic Front' concert?" Nancy said.

Derek remained silent.

"Think about it: January 2012?" Nancy continued.

"... Connor lost the Anomaly Locking Mechanism. So?" Derek said, shrugging.

"No, something else happened that night." Nancy hinted. "Think about the timeline. What happened later that— this— year? Perhaps around October-time?"

Derek looked completely puzzled, not understanding what she was trying to explain.

"I don't get it." he said.

Nancy and Haley groaned in frustration.

"Jesus Christ, Derek!" Haley hissed.

"What?" Why can't you just tell me?" he asked.

Nancy opened her mouth to tell him what they were thinking, but then the jangling sound of keys on the front door was heard, and Abby stepped into the apartment.

"Hello," she said. She spotted Derek and Haley. "What are you doing here?"

"Just popping by. To say 'hello'." Nancy said, answering for them.

Abby eyed the three of them suspiciously, before trudging into the kitchen and popping her plastic shopping bags on the side.

"The weather tonight is just awful. I'm soaked," she moaned, demonstrating by showing how plastered to her skin her clothes were. "I'm going to go and take a nice, warm bath. Tell me if Connor and Sid get home."

And with that, she left the room. Haley and Nancy smiled sweetly at her, trying to act as casually as possible while in her presence. When they were sure she wasn't going to come back into the kitchen, they darted over to the shopping bags.

"What are you doing?" Derek asked them.

They were rooting through Abby's stuff, the plastic bags crinkling loudly as they searched each one like sniffer dogs at an airport.

"Looking for something." Nancy replied quietly.

"Isn't that a bit—" he was going to say 'rude", or something along those lines, but then Haley pulled something out of one of the bags and held it up for the world to see.

Nancy spotted it, and greedily snatched it off her.

They stared at it in amazement, as if the item they were holding was something Indiana Jones would go on a crusade for.

"Is that what I think it is?" Derek asked.

"Uh-huh." the girls said simultaneously.

It was a small, blue and white cardboard box, with the words _"CLEAR BLUE"_ printed largely onto the front, and the caption _"OVER 99% ACCURATE"_ written beneath it.

It was a pregnancy test.

And then Derek realised that October 2012 was the month Sid and Nancy had been born.

"Holy fucking shit." Nancy whispered.

Haley took the pregnancy test off her, and examined the writing on the front of the box.

A surge of anxiety pains suddenly rose up in Derek's chest.

"Oh my god, I think I'm having my worst fear realised." he said. "My seventeen year old girlfriend is holding a pregnancy test."

She snickered, and then passed it back to Nancy, who shook her head as she held it.

"This is so weird." she whispered.

Haley and her began to giggle, and Derek laughed with them, habitually running a hand through his hair again.

But then a knock sounded at the door, and they all looked like deer caught in the headlights.

"What do we do?" Nancy asked.

"I not know, what if that's Connor? And Sid?" Derek said. "And me?"

"If he sees the pregnancy test, he might freak out." Nancy whispered.

"What if Abby comes out of the bathroom?" Haley hissed.

"Are any of you going to answer the door?" Molly asked from the couch.

Nancy chucked the "Clear Blue" box at Derek, who nearly dropped it in panic, and then chucked it back to Haley, who tossed it onto the counter as if it was on fire.

"_Shit!_" she cursed, and put it back into the bag where they'd found it while Derek went to the front door.

He opened it and found Matt standing in the hallway, holding a giant bouquet of flowers. He looked less than amused.

"Hello, Derek. Is Connor here? I have to ask him a few questions."

**a/n: Sorry for the rather long wait, but here's Chapter 11! **

**I would like to thank everybody who sent me kind messages and reviews telling me to get better and wishing me well, and wishing me good luck on my exams. You have all been incredibly supportive, and I thank every one of you! I appreciate you guys so much, so thank you! :D**


	12. Chapter 12

**OKAY! HELLO!**

**I have been away for a very long time. I realise some of you are angry. Some of you may have mourned.**

**There is no way I can explain to you why exactly I have been absent for so very long. But, believe me, if I told you, you'd be understanding, cause it's a perfectly reasonable explanation that justifies it.**

**I apologise sincerely for temporarily abandoning you.**

**I would like to thank each and every one of you who has sent me a message or a review in the time I've been gone. You guys are the reason I've not given up on this, and I appreciate every view this story gets, and every person who takes the time to look at my writing.**

**But I'm not here to talk about me.**

**I'm here to write fanfiction about an awesome fucking show.**

**And I'm just letting you know that I am back.**

**For good.**

**-Anne**

A FEW VISITORS

CHAPTER 12

**JESS**

"I mean, why would they do that?" Jess said very seriously, her voice strained with anger and upset.

She dug her spoon further into the tub of maple walnut ice-cream and brought a heap of crême glacée goodness back out with it.

"I know. Bastards." Jake said, also digging his spoon into the tub.

They were lying on Becker's spare bed, surrounded by every tub of ice cream that Becker had in his freezer, watching 'Four Weddings and A Funeral'.

Jess' brow was knit deeply in frustration; she was very unhappy.

"I mean, _why_ would they cast Andie Macdowell in this film?" she spat, shoving the spoonful of ice-cream into her mouth. She ate it angrily. "Andie Macdowell, of all people! Opposite Hugh Grant! Andie fucking Macdowell?!"

Jake looked at her sympathetically, and patted her shoulder.

"I know. I feel exactly the same way." he sighed.

"Its just not fair." she mumbled quietly around her mouthful.

Jake reached around her and picked up the television remote, deciding it was time to change the channel.

She was starting to feel sorry for herself, over Andie Macdowell. It didn't really make sense to him.

"Ah, Jerry Springer. Watching the scum of the earth get into fights over relationships should cheer you up, eh?" he said.

She nodded, and smiled at him.

"You're fun to hang around with." she said.

"I know. But I'm in high demand, so this is a rare opportunity that you should appreciate." he said, sighing and making Jess giggle.

The crowd on the TV roared, and both of them turned to see what was going on.

"Tsst. Would you look at that— he tried to cheat with her when she was already married. To his best friend, at that. He should have asked her out when he had the chance and she was single, shouldn't he?" Jess said, gesturing to the telly with her spoon.

Jake shrugged.

"Well, maybe he didn't realise he liked her back then. I mean, she obviously loved him. He didn't do anything about it, sure, but us guys aren't mind readers. Sometimes girls should make the first move, otherwise this situation might happen." he said.

Jess raised an eyebrow.

"Really? You would rather a girl made the first move than you?"

He looked over at her, slightly surprised.

"Not rather, but I wouldn't mind it. I've been asked out by girls before." he said. Then he thought again. "But usually that's because they have a crush on my dad, not me."

Jess snickered, and they both dug into the ice cream again.

"Why don't you ask him out?" Jake said.

Jess snapped her head up to look at the boy.

"What?" she said.

"Becker. You obviously like him. Ask him out." he said.

"How did you—"

"I'm not stupid."

He grinned at her, but she looked rather annoyed.

"You can't give me relationship advice." she said.

"Why not?" he laughed.

"One, you're fifteen. Two, I don't even know your last name." she said.

"I'm not giving you my surname, no matter how much you hint at it." he whispered.

"Know what else you're not giving me?" she whispered back.

"What?"

"Relationship advice."

"Well played, Jess Parker. Well played."

**CONNOR**

Connor, Sid and the woman with the toddler in her arms stepped out of Connor's car into the cold London air.

It was nearly eleven o'clock, and they were in an area that Connor had never been to before. But apparently this was where "Dave" lived.

"Are you sure this is where the anomaly detection device is?" Connor asked her.

"Yes, positive. I knew you were giving it to the guy, and I couldn't stop you. So I coaxed his address out of Jack when you were on your way out and wrote it down." she said, adjusting little Derek's wooly hat underneath his raincoat.

"Natasha, if it wasn't for you, I think Lester would beat me like a bowl of eggs." Connor sighed, shaking his head.

They approached the front door, and Connor rang the bell.

"I'm cold." Sid muttered, hugging himself tightly.

He was ignored.

Connor rang the bell once more, and after a few moments, they heard the sliding noise of a chain being unlatched on the other side, and a man opened the door.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

He was bald, and muscular, and covered in tattoos— an intimidating man, to say the least.

Connor wanted to run away like a scared kitten at the sight of him.

But he didn't. He smiled nervously, and cleared his throat.

"Hi, I'm Connor, Connor Temple. I believe we met the other night, through Jack Maitland?" he said.

The man leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms.

"Oh, yeah. I think I remember you. Jack's mate... Came with your girlfriend?"

"Yeah," Connor said, smiling enthusiastically. "And, apparently, I gave you something that belongs to the company I work for."

The man paused. He didn't look happy.

"...A machine? Big metal thing? Kinda hard to forget?" Natasha prompted.

The man shook his head.

"Haven't seen it. Sorry."

Connor sighed.

"Look, Dave, mate. I know you have this machine." he said, his patience running out. "I know you probably want to sell it, too. And I am here to tell you that it is not your property, and that I wish to have it back, please."

Dave glared at Connor.

"Listen, arsehole," he snapped. "I don't have this fucking machine of yours. So you can just piss off, right now, away from my fucking house. Understand?"

Connor gulped.

"Listen, I don't what any trouble. But that machine is government property—"

"I don't give a fuck. Good night." Dave spat, stepping back into his house and reaching to close the door.

Sid stopped it from closing by shoving his foot in the doorway.

"Oi, don't talk to us like that! We need our machine!" the teenager yelled.

Dave ground his teeth, and suddenly Connor felt the need to yank Sid away from the door altogether.

"Fuck off away from my house, wanker! Or else I'll beat you to a bloody pulp. You're not getting any fucking machine back!"

And with that, the door slammed shut, and they were left in the pouring rain.

"Well, that went well." Sid mumbled.

"Abby's gonna kill me." Connor groaned. "If that bloke doesn't, anyway..."

"What are you gonna do now?" Natasha asked them.

"Connor pulled his car keys out of his pocket.

"We get Becker."

**MATT**

_Roses are red,_

_Violets are blue._

_I'm very sorry for giving away the Anomaly Locking Mechanism,_

_And, Matt, I love you._

—_Connor_

Matt Anderson stood in the front room of the Parker-Maitland-Temple flat, holding a fat, colourful bouquet of red and pink roses, and glaring at the three teenagers before him.

He was so angry, in fact, that his face had almost turned the same scarlet shade as the flowers he held.

"Where. Is. Connor. Temple." he asked.

Derek looked to Haley, who looked to Nancy, who had the sudden urge to climb into one of the kitchen cupboards and hide there.

"Uhm... We don't know. He's out with Sid." the blonde mumbled.

Matt drew a deep breath and nodded. He was angry.

"Uh huh. And where is Abby?"

"Having a bath." Nancy replied.

Matt gave a quick nod, and purposefully strode over to the bathroom door, on which he proceeded to knock politely.

"Who's there?"

"Abby, it's Matt. I need to speak to you. I've figured out what happened to the Anomaly Locking Mechanism."

There was a pause, some shuffling noises, the sound of the door being unlocked, and then Abby emerged from the bathroom in a dressing gown and a pair of slippers.

"What?" she asked him. Her hair was wet, and glistened under the kitchen light.

"Connor sold it."

Abby blinked.

Matt was deadly serious. She looked to the three teenagers, who were equally as serious, and then back to the Irish man. She eyed the roses for a second, and then laughed.

"What are you talking about?"

"I received these flowers this evening, obviously sent to me by Connor," Matt calmly removed the gift tag from the flowers and read aloud what was penned on it's front. "The card says, 'Roses are red, violets are blue. I'm very sorry for giving away the Anomaly Locking Mechanism, and, Matt, I love you'."

Abby snorted and shook her head in disbelief.

"What? No. This must be a joke."

Matt remained very still, his face a frozen depiction of raw frustration.

"Your boyfriend is the reason that these six kids are in our custody."

Haley shuffled awkwardly from foot to foot; on the sofa, Molly turned away from Nickelodeon to listen to Matt.

Abby frowned.

"How could he have sold it? I mean, it's government property, he wouldn't have sold it... Would he?"

"I don't know, but it makes sense, and that is why I am looking for him."

Abby tiredly rubbed her face with her hands, her shoulders dropping with disappointment.

"Last time I checked, he was at the A.R.C with Sid."

"He's not at the A.R.C. I already looked," Matt snapped. "I'm going to have to find him."

**BECKER**

Captain Becker awoke after his much-needed nap to find his flat mostly empty. After checking to ensure that his hair wasn't in disarray (God forbid), he knocked on Jess' bedroom door.

"Come in."

He found Jake and Jess, watching telly, surrounded by half-empty ice cream tubs.

How these ice cream tubs had come to be in their possession and not the confines of his freezer, he didn't know, but he guessed it had something to do with the mischievous fifteen-year-old that was now dangerously close to dripping raspberry ripple on his pillowcase.

"How was your nap?" Jess asked him, gleefully.

Her cheeks were pink, and she was smiling brightly. The blue in he eyes regained it sparkle.

He inwardly felt overjoyed that she was getting back to her cheerful self.

"Good. How are you feeling?"

"Oh, terrific. Touch woozy every now and then, but apart from that, fine."

He gave her a small smile, eyed Jake suspiciously, and then realised that Haley and Derek were nowhere around.

"Where are the other two?" he asked them.

Jake and Jess exchanged a look. Worry crossed between them, and alarms went off in Becker's brain.

"Umm... They, uh, left." Jess said, her voice small.

He sighed, and shut his eyes.

"Left to go where, exactly?"

No one answered him.

He was about to ask again and propose some sort of ultimatum, when Jake blurted out, "They went to find Nancy! At Abby and Connor's, okay! There, I've told you, don't issue an ultimatum!"

Becker raised his eyebrows, and then frowned.

"How did you know I was going to?"

Jake was about to say something snarky, but then he looked at Jess' curious expression and fell silent.

"How did they plan to get there?" Becker asked.

"I think they took your car." said Jess.

Becker's eyes went wide.

_"What?!"_

And with that, he disappeared from the room, and they heard the front door slam.

"Wait!" Jake yelled. "I want to come with you!"

Jess jumped with startle as he leaped from the bed.

"What? You're going, too? Why?" she called, as he dashed from the room.

His reply was shouted from the hall.

"I want to watch Haley get in trouble!"

She sighed lightly, expecting to hear the door slam a second time, but then Jake ran back into her room.

To her surprise, the teenager gave her a quick peck on the forehead before bounding out of the room again.

"Stay in bed! Feel better!"

And then the door did slam, and the boy who looked so much like Hilary Becker was gone, leaving Jess alone and happily confused.


	13. Chapter 13

A FEW VISITORS

CHAPTER 13

**CONNOR**

Connor expected to arrive back at his home to find Abby settling down in front of the telly for the evening, Nancy and Molly keeping themselves entertained, and the house to otherwise be peaceful.

What he found was probably as far from that as possible.

He opened the front door, and Abby was immediately shouting.

"You sold the Anomaly Locking Mechanism?!"

He froze, and spotted his girlfriend (clad in only a dressing gown, for some reason) stood in the kitchen, along with Matt Anderson and Captain Hilary Becker, neither of whom looked any happier than her.

"...Hi?"

"Connor, how could you—"

"It's so irresponsible! Don't even—"

"I don't understand what you—"

"When did this happen, anyway—"

"And then they took my car—"

Suddenly, everyone in the room was shouting, at him, at each other, and Connor realised he had royally fucked up.

"Looks like you've dug yourself a hole here, mate..." Sid whispered in his ear.

Natasha and Sid were stood in the hallway behind him, and he was almost embarrassed to be involving them in this atmosphere.

"Maybe I should go?" Natasha asked him.

"No, no," he said, and stepped into the apartment. "Alright, guys! Listen! Everyone! STOP!"

The room fell silent and everybody looked at him.

Haley, Nancy, Jake and Derek were in the kitchen, too, and he chose to ignore the sight of Molly jumping around on the couch.

"Alright, I can explain everything if you just shut up." he said.

Abby crossed her arms.

"Is it true, Connor?"

He sighed, and stepped inside.

"Uh, yes. But— but— I have been working very hard this evening to fix everything, and we are very close to having the machine back in our possession."

"Is that so?" Matt asked, skeptically.

"Yes, actually," Connor replied, "because I met this lady. Her name is Natasha."

Natasha stepped inside the flat, holding little Derek in her arms, and waved meekly at everyone.

Connor heard a gasp, and noticed the stunned faces of the younger generation in the room.

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, but how exactly is she helping?" Abby asked.

Connor sighed.

"I gave the machine to a bloke named Dave, who is a friend of Jack's. He took it when we were... Umm, not of 'sound mind' the other night, Abby."

Abby looked a little less high and mighty, then, as embarrassment and understanding crept onto her face.

"Oh."

"So, where is it?" Becker asked, exasperatedly.

Connor shuffled on the spot nervously.

"I just went to see 'Dave'. He's being... Uncooperative."

Matt huffed, and exchanged a look with Becker, who looked to Abby. But Abby was more preoccupied with Natasha, who was awkwardly the centre of three teenagers' attention.

"I'm sorry, but how do you know about the Anomaly Locking Mechanism?" Abby asked.

Matt and Becker suddenly realised this, too.

"Oh. My name's Natasha Lester. I'm James Lester's sister." Natasha told them.

All of the adults in the room were equally surprised to learn this, but Connor had other plans than to let them stand around slack-jawed.

"Right, well, moving on," he said. "I will make my formal apology and all that hullabaloo later. But right now, I need some people who will make Dave _cooperate_, if you know what I mean."

"I'm supposing Dave isn't the nicest guy?" Matt asked.

"Well, no. Imagine a massive bald guy, well over six foot, covered in tattoos with a strong dislike for people at his front door." Sid explained, nervously.

Becker and Matt nodded to one another, and headed towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Abby asked them.

Connor opened the door and slipped out first, closely followed by Sid and then Becker.

"To get our mechanism back." Becker said.

Matt turned around and pointed at Derek.

"You," he called. "Come with us."

Derek tore his eyes away from the child that Natasha Lester was holding in her arms, and jogged over to the door with them.

"Molly," the Irishman snapped before leaving also. "Stop jumping on Jess' couch."

The small twelve-year-old did as she was told.

"Oi!" Haley shouted. "How come you lot are going and not me?"

Becker stuck his head back in the door.

"Because you're just not. Understood?"

"Why? I'll be more bloody use than Sid!"

"No."

"But—

"No!"

Haley groaned, and stormed off into the living room to plonk herself down next to Molly.

"Don't you give me that attitude!" Becker shouted. "And we'll be having a word about your grand theft auto when I get back!"

Then, the door slammed, and Abby, Nancy, Haley, Molly, Jake and Natasha Lester were left in an uncomfortable and sudden silence.

The doorbell rang.

It was just past midnight; the rain had stopped, and the air smelled of smoke.

A single streetlamp in front of Mr. Dave's house barely illuminated the figures of five men, all crammed onto the front doorstep of the terrace house.

"Who the fuck is it?" came a gruff voice.

"Charming," Becker muttered under his breath.

Matt rolled his eyes, and shouted, "Thomas Cook. You've won a free trip to Dubai."

Sid snorted at that, and Connor came to the conclusion that Matt's sense of humour was nocturnal.

The door flew open, and a rough-looking brute of a fellow stared groggily at them.

"What the—" he spotted Connor, and his face fell. "You!"

Connor smiled, perhaps the most terrified smile he had ever given, and waved.

"Hiya."

"What did I say I'd do to you if you didn't fuck off?" the man growled.

Connor gulped.

Beside him, Sid piped up.

"You mentioned something about beating him to a bloody pulp."

Sid received glares from all around, and then Becker cleared his throat.

"Excuse me, Dave," he said. "But we are of the belief that you are in the possession of something that belongs to us. So we would like it back, and we're not leaving until we get it."

Dave eyed the captain, who remained stony-faced, unmoving and not the least bit intimidated.

"What the fuck are you going to do about it?" Dave barked.

Becker and Matt exchanged a look, and then Matt pulled out his E.M.D, as did Derek, who had been calmly stood at the end of the front stoop.

Dave looked startled.

"Woah, what the—"

"Save it," Becker interrupted. "Give us the machine, and this will be a lot easier."

Dave's jaw clenched, and suddenly he wasn't so cocky. He eyed the E.M.D.s, secretly afraid and with a whole lot of questions, and then looked at Becker.

Reluctantly, he opened the door wide, and said, "It's in 'ere. Come and get it."

Connor and Sid smirked at one another, and Matt and Becker stepped past Dave into the dark house beyond.

"Told ya," Connor whispered. "He just needed a little persuasion from the Captain, that's all..."

Sid nodded.

"Yeah, it's sorted now. Don't worry about Abby, either, she'll forgive you." he smiled kindly and clapped him on the shoulder. "It'll be 'reet."

Sid skipped inside after Derek, a little effeminately, and Connor laughed to himself.

When Connor had first laid eyes on Sid, he'd been absolutely terrified. The boy looked so much like him, it was hard for his brain to register. The fear had been overwhelming, but now he had become his friend. It was like talking to himself, a mirror that responded, a friendly doppleganger that finished his sentences and spoke his thoughts out loud.

He smiled to himself, and suddenly didn't feel so bad about losing the Anomaly Locking Mechanism.

His little moment of poignance came to a halt, however, when he heard a shriek from inside the house, and the clicking of the E.M.D.s.

He bolted inside, and found Dave holding Sid as a sort of human shield, one arm restraining him and the other pointing a knife at his face.

"Jesus Christ, mate!" Connor yelped.

"Nobody fuckin' move," Dave shouted. "You come any closer and I'll slit his throat."

Connor gulped, and raised his hands to show that he was unarmed and defenceless.

Matt was a couple of feet away from him, E.M.D. raised and pointing straight at Dave.

Derek had copied Matt's actions; Becker was nowhere in sight. The room was poorly lit, and it was hard to make out the surroundings.

"Alright, calm down," Matt said, cooly. "We down want any trouble."

"You were askin' for trouble when you came back 'ere, with your big fuckin' guns and your government shit."

Sid's eyes— brown, puppy-like ones to match Connor's own— were wide with fright as he shook and struggled in this man's grip.

"Okay. What will it take to get you to let him go?" Matt asked.

Dave pressed the edge of the knife into Sid's jaw, drawing blood. He and Connor winced simultaneously.

"You lot are from the government," he said. "I don't want fuckin' listenin' devices in me house, or investigations goin' on, or experiments on me head. You hear? I don't want to be shipped off to some prison where I'll never see the light of day, like some terrorist!"

Matt's expression didn't change.

"We're not here to do any of that. We are just here to get our machine."

"There's stuff in this house that doesn't belong to me." Dave said, his voice low and shaky. "Stuff that could put me away for a long time. I can't let that happen."

"We're not the police. And we're not affiliated with the police." Matt said.

Dave shook his head, and dug the knife further into Sid's jaw. Sid shut his eyes tight.

"Please, just let him go. He didn't do anything!" Connor pleaded.

"You know now. I can't let you leave. You'll tell the police." the massive man said, quickly and frantically. "Put your guns down."

"We're not—"

"PUT THE FUCKIN' GUNS DOW—"

There was the horrible sound of metal hitting bone, and Dave stumbled forward, cursing and yelling in agony. Sid leaped to safety, and where they had been standing now stood Captain Becker, holding a metal pot.

Connor was amazed that Dave was still conscious, but indeed the bald man got back to his feet and turned to face Becker.

He was too swift for Matt or Derek to get a decent aim, and there was a crack as his huge fist collided with the side of Becker's face.

Whether it was due to the adrenaline or some miracle, Becker sprang right back up from the blow as if he had never felt it and threw an equally devastating punch into Dave's jaw.

Dave fell into a crumpled heap, knocked unconscious.

They all remained silent from shock.

"Wow." Connor finally said. "Well done, action man."

Becker just frowned, breathing heavily, and then doubled over in pain and clothed his face.

"Aaagh! My god, did he have iron knuckles?!"

Matt lowered his E.M.D.

"Let's get the Anomaly Locking Mechanism and get the hell out of here."

**ABBY**

Natasha had left the flat shortly after the boys, leaving Abby, Haley, Nancy, Molly and Jake alone.

Molly fell asleep on the couch, and Jake accompanied her in slumber (but not after teasing Haley about how Becker was going to punish her later).

Once the two younger ones fell asleep, only Abby, Nancy and Haley remained, giving the girls a golden opportunity to do something they really shouldn't have.

"So, Abby," Nancy began. "How are you feeling?"

Abby looked skeptical when asked the question.

"Good. Why?"

Nancy shrugged.

"I dunno. Just wondering if you're sick, or tired, or anything..."

Abby stared at her, her face somewhere between cross and confused.

"Why are you asking?"

Haley shot Nancy a look, but it was ignored.

"Do you want to know a fact about 2013?" Nancy suddenly asked.

Abby raised an eyebrow.

"It's 2012. You're not supposed to tell me."

"It'll be 'reet," Nancy said, waving her hand in dismissal. "Kim Kardashian gets pregnant. She and Kanye West have a baby."

Abby cocked her head to the side.

"Is that so?"

Nancy smiled.

"Yeah. Guess who else has a baby in 2013?"

Abby narrowed her eyes.

"Who?"

"Kate Middleton and Prince William. It's born in July." the girl said.

Abby was sat in an armchair in the living room, now wearing pyjama bottoms and one of Connor's X-Men t-shirts, nursing a hot chocolate. Nancy and Haley were on the sofa, squashed at the end so as not to disturb the sleeping Jake and Molly with any movement.

"Nancy, stop it." Haley hissed.

Abby smiled.

"That's nice. Celebrities having babies."

"Yeah," Nancy said. "Not just celebrities either..."

Haley became very anxious.

"Nancy—"

"What are you trying to say?" Abby asked, leaning forward in her seat in suspicion.

"_Nancy—_"

"We know you're pregnant!" Nancy snapped.

She then clapped her hands over her mouth, eyes wide as if she'd just given Satan the access code to Pandora's box.

Abby's jaw dropped.

Haley covered her face with her hands in devastation.

"Oh, god..." she groaned.

Abby began to stammer things, and she looked angry, as if trying to come up with some snappy threat or accusation to retaliate.

Haley punched Nancy in the arm.

"You just can't keep your fucking mouth shut, can you?!" she hissed.

Nancy bit her lip.

Abby shook her head.

"Wh— How— I'm guessing you know because you're from the future?"

Nancy nodded.

"Yeah... And because of the pregnancy test in your shopping bags."

"You went through my stuff?!" Abby snapped.

Haley stared off at the opposite wall, blankly. She didn't have the energy to deal with Nancy's idiocy.

"I'm sorry! I couldn't help myself!" Nancy whispered.

Abby looked pale.

"So I am, then? Definitely?"

Nancy and Haley nodded in unison.

Abby sunk into the armchair. Her eyes flickered over to Nancy.

"Does Connor know?"

Nancy shook her head.

"Just me and Haley. And Derek. Nobody else has figured it out, and we've not told anyone."

Abby swallowed, and they sat in silence for a while.

Abby wasn't angry— rather, she was letting it sink in that she was indeed pregnant.

Nancy was awaiting some sort of miniature celebration, but for the time being kept quiet and still.

Haley was thinking about how much they had royally fucked up this entire thing.

Eventually, Abby huffed.

They looked over to her, and she smiled, her eyes a little watery.

"I'm having a baby!" she whispered.

A massive grin broke out on Nancy's face, and she stood to give Abby a hug. Abby got to her feet, and hugged the teenaged girl.

Haley smiled at the sight; they were exactly the same height, and their mannerisms and looks were so similar. It was like she was hugging her clone.

"I'm having a baby," she repeated, quietly so as to not wake Jake or Molly. "I'm having a baby. I'm having a baby!"

They giggled, and Abby began to cry happily.

She wiped her tears away and laughed.

"I wasted eleven bloody pounds on that pregnancy test. I could've just asked you."

Nancy laughed.

"Oh, don't worry, you can just give it to—"

"NANCY!" Haley shouted.

Nancy pressed her lips together, realising she was perhaps about to spill the beans on something else.

"Sorry." she squeaked.

Before Abby could inquire as to what she was going to say, the front door opened and Connor walked in, followed closely by Sid, Matt, Becker and Derek.

"Hiya," Connor called, tiredly.

Matt was holding the Anomaly Locking Mechanism in his arms.

"You got it back!" Abby cheered.

Connor beamed at her (as if he was off the hook) and opened his arms wide.

"See? Taken care of!"

Jake stirred, and then sat up in a panic.

"Wh-What? Wha'ss goin' on?" he slurred.

Haley rolled her eyes at him, and then looked up at Becker and gasped.

"Holy crap, what happened to your face?!"

The left side of his head was red and purple, turning black in places, a plum-coloured swollen mess that ran around his eye socket and cheekbone and bruised the cheek beneath. He sighed.

"We got the machine back... But it came at a price."

She went over to examine his injuries as Sid walked over to Nancy.

He pointed at his jaw, which sported a rather deep cut.

"Look, Nance. Battle scar. I was held hostage." he said, proudly.

Connor met Abby in the middle of the room, who hugged him tightly. Surprised at her friendly, suddenly-not-so-angry-that-he-feared-for-his-life actions, he patted her on the back.

"Abs, you alright?" he asked. She stepped away from him and smiled. "Have you been crying?"

She laughed at his worry and shook her head.

"Nah. Titanic was on TV. Always gets me."

He nodded.

"Yeah it does. What gets me is that Leo DiCaprio has never won an Oscar. What's that about?"

"Alright," Matt said, a voice of authority. "It's nearly one in the morning. Work tomorrow. Let's get going, it's way past these lots' bedtimes."

Molly was still asleep on the couch, so Nancy draped a blanket over her and shut the TV off.

"If she's sleeping there, where am I gonna sleep?" Sid whispered.

"The spare room?" his sister suggested.

He pulled a face. "I don't wanna share a bed with you!"

"We shared a womb, dumbass."

Matt took the Anomaly Locking Mechanism home— he'd be damned if he left it in Connor's possession— and Connor and Abby began to switch off lamps, ready to head to bed.

"Come on you three," Becker told Haley, Jake and Derek. "Lets get you back to the flat."

"You still have to punish Haley for stealing your car." Jake reminded him, with a yawn. Haley smacked him across the back of the head.

Becker caught Jake's yawn, and ushered them out of the doorway. "We'll get to that in the morning. Right now, I'm bloody exhausted."


	14. Chapter 14

A FEW VISITORS

CHAPTER 14

**BECKER**

Captain Becker awoke to two things.

Firstly, an otherworldly pain in the side of his face, which was lovely and purple and ached like it had been hit by a Mack truck.

Secondly, a bubbly little field coordinator in his kitchen, chipper and sunshiny and making pancakes.

"Ah, good morning! I see somebody's awake. I was beginning to think nobody would be accompanying me to work this morning."

He walked out of his room to find Jess as cheerful as ever.

By the look of her, you would not have said that she'd been in the emergency room with a pretty severe concussion just a couple of nights ago.

When the term 'bright' sprang to his mind, it was quite apt: she was dressed primarily in yellow, with yellow heels, a knee-length yellow skirt, a yellow cardigan and a yellow hair-clip; she wore earrings that were daisies, and a matching daisy necklace sat above the neckline of her white shirt.

It was a surprisingly sunny January morning, and the bright light shining through the kitchen window gave her an aura of jubilance, illuminating her figure and making her hair glow auburn and her eyes shine.

He caught himself staring at her, a goofy smile on his face as she pottered around in his house.

"...Now, I'm making pancakes, really as a start to the thanks I'll be giving you all for looking after me. Jake's having chocolate chips in his, because he just loves chocolate, not unlike—"

She froze on the spot when she spotted him, and her cheery face dropped.

She nearly dropped the bag of chocolate chips she was holding.

"Becker," she gasped. "What happened to your face?"

He realised that she had been asleep when they got home, and had not yet seen his casualty.

"Oh, uh... Well, there was a thing with the Anomaly Locking Mechanism... Connor gave it away, and the guy wouldn't give it back, and he got a bit psycho..."

She hurried over to him, her heels clip-clopping as she did so, and stopped in front of him to get a close-up look at him.

He froze as she gently touched his cheekbone.

"It's not that bad." he said.

"Yes, it is!" she snapped. "Oh, Becker, sit down."

She pulled him towards a stool at the counter, but he resisted.

"No, really, I'm fine, honestly. I can stand, Jess. Jess—"

She shushed him, and instructed him to take a seat, to which he obliged. Turning the stove off for the time being, he heard her rummaging around in the freezer, and then she reemerged in his sight with a makeshift cloth bag of ice in hand.

She put it on the side of his face.

"Jess, it's been this way for six hours, now. I don't think this will help," he said, squinting at the coldness on his face.

"Your body swells when you sleep, you know," she told him. "And you obviously did nothing to treat this before you went to bed."

So there she stood, gently pressing ice to his bruises, tufting every now and then and whisking him when he protested her aid.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" he asked her after a while.

"Oh, don't be silly. I trust— in fact, I know— you've had concussions before, Captain. It was just a bump on the head, I'm fine now."

He laughed.

"You split your forehead open and you have seven stitches. I think I should be looking after you, Miss. Parker."

He reached up and lightly touched the line of stitches on her head, and their eyes met.

They both realised that they were only inches away from each other's faces now; nose to nose, hazel eyes meeting blue ones, Jess occasionally glancing down at Becker's perfect lips that the smirk had slowly disappeared from.

Then, Becker inhaled sharply, and cleared his throat, breaking the eye contact and making Jess jump.

"So, uh... Any luck with our little quest?" he asked her.

She looked confused for a moment.

_My quest to marry you and have lots and lots of sex and babies with you? That one?_

"Oh, right, about the year Sid and Nancy were born..." she said, keeping her voice low so as to not be overheard by their housemates. "No. I haven't. And no luck with Jake or Haley's surnames yet, either."

He shrugged, and she went and turned the stove back on.

"Speaking of the devils," he said. "I better get the kids up soon. They're coming to work with us."

"They're coming with us? All of them?"

He sat back down at the counter and watched as she cooked.

"Yes. In case the anomaly opens back up— we have to have them ready to go back through."

Though he wouldn't admit it, he wasn't looking forward to that day.

Jess looked saddened as he said it, but she caught him watching her and put on a smile. Cheerily, she said:

"So— chocolate chips, or not?"

**MATT**

"So, then what happened?" Emily asked him.

"He didn't wake up. We found the machine in his loft and took off."

"Oh."

Matt was going about pouring them each a cup of tea when Emily had began asking him about his misadventures the previous evening.

"You know, I was pretty worried when you didn't come home until after midnight." she said.

She was following him around the kitchen like a puppy, which he secretly found funny but kept to himself.

"You were worried about old me, were you?"

She hummed and stood behind him, tracing shapes on his back with her fingers.

"Yes. I was worried you had found taken a shine to another woman."

He laughed, and began to stir their drinks.

"Emily, I value my life, so I don't think that's gonna be happening any time soon. God, if I had messed around with some woman, and you found out... Well, it'd be like world war three, wouldn't it?"

He turned around and placed his hands on her waist, but she slipped away and began walking towards the bedroom.

"Speaking of which, I need to find your encyclopaedia and look up these 'world wars' people keep talking about..."

He walked after her as she strode down the hall, keeping up with her purposeful speed.

"By the way, I've been meaning to ask you about something." he said.

"What?"

"You know the other night..."

"When everyone got drunk?"

She stopped by a shelf in his room and pulled an encyclopaedia off of it. She opened it and began to flick through the pages.

"Yeah. Well, everyone was talking about these kids, remember?" he asked.

She hummed again. He continued.

"Well, I said that I thought Molly was... Ours."

She looked up from the book.

"...And?"

He took the book off her, closed it, and put it back on the shelf. They looked at one another seriously. He took a breath.

"Well. What do you think about that? About us having... a kid? One day?"

She blinked, and tried to figure out what he himself was feeling. But this was Matt Anderson— there was no telling what the man's emotions were.

"I don't know. There was a time when I wanted children, but with everything happening in my life, and our lives, it sort of... Escaped my mind." she said. "But if the time came... And we were ready. And you wanted it, too... Then, that would be..."

He awaited her answer.

"Perfection."

A grin spread across his face, and he chuckled.

"Good. Because I think I feel the same way."

She smiled at him, and they kissed. Gently at first, but they ended up falling back onto the bed, locked in a series of passionate, never-ending kisses.

Matt's lips moved down to her neck; she moaned as sucked on her flesh and began to one-handedly unbitten her shirt.

"Matt," she breathed. They had to be at work soon— he of all people knew that.

But her sentence dissolved when her blouse was open, and he was kissing the fair skin of her belly, and his hand was tugging on her skirt impatiently, and when he moved back up to kiss her on the lips she could feel how hard he was through his jeans.

Then Lady Emily Merchant, in a not so ladylike manner, was the one struggling to unzip his pants.

As quickly as her skirt came off came the rest of their clothes, until only Matt's boxer shorts remained.

"We're gonna be late for work," she breathed as he made short work of them.

"I don't give a flying fuck." was his response.

He climbed on top of her and began kissing her neck again; she gasped as he slid into her, and before she knew it, they were well in the middle of having amazing hot sex on Matt's bed.

**HALEY**

Haley was not having a particularly pleasant day.

Yes, the pancakes were nice.

Yes, she was glad Jess was feeling better.

Yes, she was glad that Becker had 'forgotten' about punishing her for stealing his car.

But she was not happy with the clothes she was wearing.

Normally, she was in uniform. Combat trousers, military clothes, A.R.C. security t-shirts; she rarely wore anything that was colourful or too casual.

But she had no wardrobe here, no closet to her liking, and she happened to be staying with Jessica Parker, who saw this an opportunity to make Haley her personal Barbie doll.

The jeans were bad enough: they were... snug, to say the least, but Haley could only thank god she hadn't been wrestled into a skirt.

She got to wear her combat boots, which eased the pain, and the leather jacket Jess leant her wasn't half bad.

But the blouse. Oh, the blouse.

It was a pink thing, very Jess. White polkadots made it all the more girly, and the pink bow that tied at the front was just her worst nightmare.

If my soldiers saw me wearing this, I'd be put to death by firing squad, she thought.

She was already feeling like a character from Gossip Girl.

Derek certainly liked it, but she told him not to get used to the feminine style.

This look was reserved for Victoria, her diva of a fourteen-year-old sister, and her mother, who had always been so disappointed that she didn't share her enthusiasm for vibrant fashionable outfits.

"That's a nice, uh, look, Haley." Sid giggled as he walked past her.

"Shut the fuck up or I'll break your jaw."

"Okay."

Everybody in the A.R.C. seemed to have their own duty to go about, even the 'newer additions' to the team.

Sid and Abby were in the menagerie; Jake and Jess were at the A.D.D; Nancy hung around with Connor, and pointed out basic design flaws in the systems; Derek bugged Lester relentlessly, to the point where Lester had accidentally called him 'Danny'.

Molly was left to her own devices, and she had disappeared about an hour ago, not yet to be found again.

Haley, on the other hand, had nothing to do.

On a normal day at the A.R.C. she was used to, she had more jobs than anybody else. One day, she'd be head of security.

But here, it was... old fashioned. As was the attitude of Captain Hilary Becker.

"Captain," she said to him, jogging to his side as he entered the hub.

He rolled his eyes, having been desperately trying to avoid her all morning.

"What, Haley?" he asked her.

"I am, to be frank, no attribution to you or anyone else just standing round. Everybody here has a job except me, and I would appreciate it if you gave me some sort of duty." she said quickly.

He continued walking, a pile of papers in his hand that he needed to give to Jess.

"No. You don't work here." he replied, bluntly. "You are not a part of my team, and you are not a soldier."

She stopped in front of him, forcing him to come to a halt, and looked him dead in the eye.

"I am a soldier. I completed my Phase 1 training at AFC Harrogate and my Phase 2 at AFC Harrogate. I start my Phase 3 training at Infantry Battle School in Brecon next month, which will last for fourteen weeks."

This caught Becker's attention. He raised an eyebrow.

"Is that so?"

Haley pursed her lips.

"Yes. I'll have you know I am also trained in fieldcraft, skill at arms, first aid, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence, and—"

"That's all very good, Haley, but education's one thing and experience is another. You said it yourself— I'm a well respected soldier with Special Ops training, and you're still in training at Sandhurst."

He walked off again, leaving Haley bitterly glaring after him.

"Experience?" she snapped. "You want to talk to me about experience?!"

Becker rolled his eyes.

"Yes, I do. Where have you been stationed before?"

"Nowhere, for the time being. But forget your military sense for a second and consider the fact that I survived in the Jurassic for a year when I was fifteen, I've singlehandedly taken down a Giganotosaurus, and I stopped Big Ben from being destroyed by a fifty-foot-tall Spinosaurus, among other things."

Becker stopped and turned to face her.

"Fine." he said. "I'll let you work for me."

She smiled smugly to herself, and he mirrored the expression when he thrust the pile of papers at her chest.

"You can start by delivering these profiles to Jess and then picking up the surveillance reports from room 15B and getting them to Lester, preferably before he throws a temper tantrum."

Haley scowled as Captain Becker strode back in the direction he came, hands folded behind his back as usual.

"Haley," Jess casually began her as she approached the A.D.D. "Can I ask you something?"

Haley sighed, and dropped the pile of profiles on the desktop.

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm filling in these records, and I was wondering— what is the name of your father?"

Haley blinked.

"No."

Jess tried again.

"Okay, what is the name of Jake's father?"

"We have the same father."

"Interesting," Jess mused. "And are your parents divorced, unhappy, or happily married with lots of babies?"

Haley gave Jess a sardonic look.

"I cant tell you anything else, Miss. Parker, so I suggest you stop asking." she said. "But it's the third one, unfortunately."

Jess smiled to herself, delighted at the answer, and was about to say something else when the alarms went off.

"Anomaly," Jess and Haley said at the same time.

Jess spun around to face the A.D.D.— Haley wasn't her concern now, it was go-time, action stations. Her voice rang out through the intercom.

"We have an anomaly detection at the Fairton Hotel in west London, I repeat, the Fairton Hotel in west London..."

Haley chucked the pile of Lester's precious surveillance reports onto Jess' desk and took off in a sprint, heading straight for the garage. She knew where she was going, and it was ritzy-sounding hotel in west London.

She was looking forward to seeing twenty-seven year-old Hilary Becker ignoring her for much longer.


End file.
